Projects / Predictive waste management
Predictive waste management
Disrupting the world of waste management, we helped bintel introduce Sweden to on-demand waste collections by predicting fill levels of all connected containers.
Keywords
IoT
Machine Learning
AI Pipelines
Python
MLOps
Sustainability
Introduction
Bintel is a company providing predictive, data driven waste management services. Their motto is simple - no time to waste. We’re proud of being a part of Bintels journey to create a more sustainable future, ensuring we’re doing everything possible to reduce unnecessary emissions by making clever use of next generation technologies.
Challenge
Binel provides and install IoT devices on waste containers. This allows collection of live fill level data. The data is a core component in next generation waste management where entire systems are monitored and managed on a on-demand basis as opposed to static collection schedules used today. For example, a truck is sent to empty waste bins in a specific area every Thursday.
Goal
Our task was to ultimately build routing algorithms for a fleet of trucks to optimize waste collection schedules. Trucks have different capacities - not just in volume, but different capabilities with regards to what fractions the can empty (plastic, metal etc).
Solution
Backtick collaborates with bintel on multiple projects. We’re the studio responsible for bintel’s ML infrastructure and models. The models are continuously predicting future waste container fill levels and detecting anomalies in sensor data, ensuring high quality data streams to downstream services.
In order to solve the challenge of smarter waste collection schedules, we modeled and developed a few building blocks that integrated with bintel's data streams and infrastructure:
Anomaly detection for incoming data - while IoT devices are great, sometimes reality messes things up - like when people throw trash with compressing it, or a spider web that messes with the measurements
Machine learning models to predict when waste containers are full
Vehicle routing for a fleet of trucks with regards to capacity, capabilities, the predicted fill levels and certain time windows regarding truck available.
Results
Multiple machine learning models trained and managed with MLFlow and deployed in Docker containers at a Swedish cloud provider. Implementation of the capacitated vehicle routing problem with time windows (CVRPTW).