Storyline: Autonomous cleaning robots redefine future of urban sanitation in China [Voice_over] In the southern Chinese tech hub Shenzhen, autonomous cleaning robots are revolutionizing urban sanitation, silently moving along streets and waterways to maintain public spaces. Outside a six-story stadium in Longgang District, a self-driving street sweeper follows pre-programmed routes to collect and dispose of waste without human interaction. A project manager for the robots says the machines are more efficient than human sanitation workers, with a single unit able to perform the work of four humans in about half the time. [Sound_bite] Lin Songyuan, Project General Manager: "These unmanned robotic devices can be managed via the cloud. Through the system, we can monitor the entire operational scenario. For example, we can track the location of a specific device, such as where it’s charging, whether it has completed its tasks in a designated area, and even whether there is litter beneath a particular tree." [Voice_over] In addition to paved streets and squares, lakes and waterways in the city are also cleaned by the autonomous robots, skimming debris and algae from the surface. And, engineers say, their navigation is so precise that they can identify and avoid delicate water lilies. [Sound_bite] Zheng Lei, Technical Staff Member, Unmanned Cleaning Boat Project, Lizhi Park, Shenzhen: "The hull is equipped with millimeter-wave radar and cameras, which use algorithms to identify obstacles and avoid them in real time. This enables the boat to complete cleaning tasks along pre-determined routes without manual operation. Its maximum garbage collection capacity is roughly 50 kilos." [Voice_over] According to projections from an industry bluebook published in 2024, the size of China’s driverless sanitation service market will reach 39 billion U.S. dollars this year. [Restrictions : No access Chinese mainland]