A Motion Planning Software System for Automated Landfill Compaction on Rough Surfaces

The integration of robotics and automation techniques in sanitary landfill operations would dramatically reduce construction workers' exposure to hazardous materials and improve the productivity of landfill operations. The autonomous equipment would provide a system where the productivity associated with waste spreading would be increased. Since there are uncertain job-site conditions in landfill sites, the stability of the autonomous compactor must be real-time protected. Another concern is the proper layout planning and utilization of the landfill space because it is an important resource for the landfill company. Productivity can be increased if the compactor can determine and apply the number of passes correctly by measuring on-site compaction density. This paper describes a software system developed to facilitate the generation of area-covering path plans of the autonomous compactor for the spreading and compaction processes on rough surfaces, the landfill space management associated with a proposed sensing system, and the recommended approach to determine the compaction density.