Optimal Path Planning for Selective Waste Collection in Smart Cities

Area of Science:

• Urban planning
• Environmental engineering
• Computer science

Background:

• Waste collection is a critical urban service requiring efficient route planning.
• Existing methods often overlook environmental and socioeconomic factors.
• Smart city initiatives aim to optimize urban operations through technology.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop an optimal path planning algorithm for waste collection routes.
• To create a practical software platform for smart and sustainable cities.
• To minimize environmental (CO2 emissions, noise) and socioeconomic (trucks, fuel) impacts.

Main Methods:

• Developed an optimal path planning algorithm executed in Net2Plan.
• Utilized Net2Plan-GIS library for importing city layout and smart bin data from GIS databases.
• Integrated environmental and socioeconomic factors into the optimization model.

Main Results:

• Successfully computed optimal waste collection routes, minimizing environmental and socioeconomic impacts.
• Demonstrated the platform's effectiveness in a case study in Cartagena, Spain.
• The algorithm and platform are open-source and publicly available.

Conclusions:

• The developed algorithm and platform offer an effective solution for optimizing urban waste collection.
• This approach supports smart city goals for sustainable urban mobility and resource management.
• The methodology can be extended to other optimal path planning scenarios in smart cities.