Year 13 students from UTC Portsmouth have shared their ideas for how technology and robotics could help people become less reliant on their cars, as part of a term-long project with Portsmouth City Council.
The students were tasked by the council’s regeneration team to explore how the latest technology, from drones to autonomous vehicles, could be used to help people and goods move around and reduce the number of cars and vans on the roads.
Over the term the students researched how robotics are being used in other cities around the UK and overseas to help people commute, to deliver shopping or collect waste and recycling. Their research led them to four imaginative solutions that they think could be trialled within Portsmouth. The students’ ideas included:
- a fast-acting communal composting system that allows neighbourhoods to combine their food and garden waste and reuse the compost in community gardens
- hydrogen-powered water shuttles to introduce greener, quieter and faster travel around Portsmouth Harbour
- the ‘Back Buddy’ – a Portsmouth-built autonomous delivery robot that can collect your shopping for you or follow you around the shops to save you carrying heavy bags
- a personalised online security system to protect delivery drones and robots.
The student’s presented their ideas to a panel of transport and regeneration specialists who were impressed with the amount of research and innovation displayed by the students.
