Automatic Localization System Applied to Urban Solid Waste Collection Vehicles

The poor management of urban solid waste (USW) causes a series of direct problems in cities. For example, it produces unpleasant odors, favors the presence of rodents and insects that are disease vectors, and produces dirt in the urban landscape. The urban solid waste collection and transportation system in Loja-Ecuador has some problems such as non-compliance with schedules and coverage of collection routes. This demonstrates the need to improve the management of USW in cities. Based on previous information, this project aims to develop an automatic localization system for urban solid waste collection and transportation vehicles. The designed system is structured into three modules: the processing module, the data acquisition and sending module, and the remote server module, which consists of a remote connection unit, database, and web application for visualization. To evaluate the performance of the proposed system, field tests were conducted by selecting two solid-waste collection and transportation routes. The data were compared with a Garmin Monterra reference GPS, and the errors were calculated using the Haversine function. In Test 1 (12.7 km), an average total error of 3.35 m was obtained, and in Test 2 (15.6 km), an average total error of 3.37 m was obtained; these error levels are acceptable for the type of system implemented.