Oshkosh Corporation (noted for building heavy vehicles, emergency equipment, etc.) unveiled a prototype robot named HARR-E (short for Hail-able Autonomous Refuse Robot – Electric). It’s an electric, autonomous robot designed to collect refuse and recycling on demand—think of it like “Uber for your trash.”
HARR-E was developed by Oshkosh’s Pratt Miller unit. The goal is to complement traditional waste collection services—especially in planned communities, business parks, or campuses—by offering more flexible, efficient, and lower-impact trash pickup.
What HARR-E Does & How It Works
Here are the key features and how the system is envisioned to operate:
- On-Demand Pickup: Users can request trash or recycling pickup through a smartphone app or via a virtual assistant at home. No need to wait for a fixed weekly schedule.
- Autonomous Navigation: HARR-E is equipped with a suite of sensors and AI-based navigation tools. It travels from a central refuse collection area to a residence, collects the waste, then returns to the central point.
- Electric & Sustainable: Because it’s electric, it offers the possibility of reducing emissions, noise, and operational costs compared to traditional diesel trucks.
- Complementing Traditional Methods: HARR-E is intended not to fully replace large garbage trucks, but to handle the “last-mile” or “first-mile” of waste pickup—especially in dense residential settings where residents typically carry or move trash to a centralized bin or pick-up location. Bigger trucks would still haul trash from central points to landfills or processing centers.
User Experience
From what has been reported so far, here’s how users might interact with HARR-E and how it fits into daily waste management:
- The user notices their bin (trash or recycling) is full (or whenever they want a pickup), opens the app (or uses the assistant), and places a request.
- The robot travels autonomously along mapped paths (likely sidewalks or roads within the community) avoiding obstacles, using advanced sensor suites.
- At the user’s location, HARR-E arrives, the user either carts their bin to the robot, or the robot approaches a bin or receptacle, depending on design. There are suggestions in some reports that the robot might have a lid that opens, so residents deposit trash directly.
- After collecting, HARR-E returns to its central station, where it unloads its payload, maybe weighs the garbage, recharges, and waits for the next request.
HARR-E by Oshkosh is an intriguing peek into what the future of waste collection might look like—autonomous, flexible, cleaner, and more responsive. While many details (costs, durability, regulation, user adoption) must be resolved before widespread deployment, the robot promises to shift some aspects of how communities manage trash for the better: less waiting, less noise, fewer big trucks rumbling through residential streets, and more convenience for people.
HARR-E reflects wider trends in robotics, urban infrastructure, and sustainability:
- The push toward autonomous, last-mile solutions in logistics (e.g. delivery robots, robot couriers) is now extending to waste collection.
- Part of the broader electrification of heavy duty and service vehicles: waste trucks are a major source of emissions and noise; mini-robots may reduce some of that burden.
- Smart city design: integrating robotics, sensors, AI, and networked services (apps, virtual assistants) into civic services.
- Potential changes in how municipalities contract for waste collection, with more modular or flexible service models.