Husky

While our cities are growing and population concentration takes place, the amount of waste increases and its composition becomes more volatile and complex. The current pandemic can serve as an example for a fast change in the countries’ waste composition. Decentralization and flexibility thus represent the biggest challenges for the recycling industries’ future. Potentials that can be derived from that are automation and modularity. Instead of running stationary machinery there will soon be a need for operating more decentrally – namely smaller companies that can adapt to changes in materiality.

HUSKY implements these potentials, forming a system that is able to steer and move mobile recycling machines within the factory yard. By positioning different recycling machines, mobile and modular systems for waste treatment can quickly be formed. Using two separate hydraulic pumps even allows running the machine after being positioned. Current guidance systems are either unable to move such high weights or just not made for rough terrain. In terms of design HUSKY is a “wolf in sheep’s clothing”. As there are no comparable autonomous machines in these sectors so far, it has to convey an impression of trustfulness and intelligence. In this case a masculine extrovert design would not have supported the smart controls but rather created insecurity.

In contrast to recycling machines HUSKY can move independently. That is why every single action has to be transparent and comprehensible for nearby persons. Therefore the headlights may be regarded as eyes. The side lights can be found near ground level in order to make impurities better visible (e. g. nails from wooden laths). In addition to that the lights’ color and pulsation can somehow communicate and express the machine’s “thinking” and thus make it intuitively predictable. For sure nobody wants to have a mobile unpredictable and extrovert black box nearby.