Orange Sparkle Ball was awarded a Real World Deployment Grant from the Michigan Economic Development Corporation's Office of Future Mobility and Electrification. This grant is enabling us to put our Autonomous Robotic Pickup Platform into action through a series of pilots in the Transportation Innovation Zone of Detroit, established by the Office of Mobility Innovation at The City of Detroit.

ON ORANGE SPARKLE BALL & PARTNERS

Who is Orange Sparkle Ball?
Orange Sparkle Ball is an innovation and impact accelerator focused on moving public and private organizations’ initiatives forward. Orange Sparkle Ball was awarded a Real World Deployment Grant from the Michigan Economic Development Corporation's Office of Future Mobility and Electrification. This grant is enabling us to put our Autonomous Robotic Pickup Platform into action through a series of 4 pilots in the Transportation Innovation Zone of Detroit, established by the Office of Mobility Innovation at The City of Detroit.
Based on the pilots we have conducted, we have launched Penny Pickup as a solution to expand the use of micromobility technology beyond current applications to pick up household materials for transport to appropriate facilities for responsible end-of-life processing.
What is Penny Pickup?
Penny Pickup is an initiative launched by Orange Sparkle Ball.
Penny Pickup is a micromobility logistics platform where electric powered autonomous robots can be hailed for the pickup of materials and redistributed to the most sustainable processing destination that ensures their proper reuse, recycling, refurbishment, and redistribution. We want to understand how robots can be used to maximize the efficiency of sustainable material disposal.
Read more about the launch of Penny Pickup here.
What is Orange Sparkle Ball’s role in this project?
Orange Sparkle Ball is creating a civic tech platform to provide more efficient city infrastructure services. To do this, we’re conducting a series of pilots with different technology and community partners. This is not about any one technology partner or startup but about understanding how the technology itself can solve civic infrastructure problems. We know that autonomous ground robot technology is ready for field testing. It’s just that the use cases - in other words, where the technology has been deployed - have focused on mostly delivering goods, not on civic infrastructure. We are changing that, not by focusing on any one startup specifically, but by focusing on the promise of the technology sector. As a society, we really don’t care what brand of truck Amazon uses for deliveries, but we do care that they are successfully delivering our packages.
The outcome of these pilots will be a pickup platform (Penny Pickup, powered by Orange Sparkle Ball). This will be an online service where you can hail a robot to pick up household materials for the correct end-of-life processing including disposal, recycling, reuse, or donation. We plan to partner with residences and businesses to understand the needs of the community, as well as with organizations dedicated to specialty processing to understand proper logistics and the value chain.
Who are the technology and community partners for these pilots?
Orange Sparkle Ball is partnering with local Detroit businesses and startups as well as autonomous technology startups to pilot what zero emissions pickup could look like for the neighborhoods of Detroit.
Who is providing the technology, software, robotic equipment, etc.?
Orange Sparkle Ball will not provide the technology, but we have several technology partners, including Ottonomy, Refraction, and Intermode. We will work to understand how the technology can be used in a pick-up platform with the goal of building a civic tech pick-up platform that will serve city infrastructure needs while providing a viable end-of-life solution for commonly discarded products.
How is Orange Sparkle Ball engaging with participating residents and businesses?
For community partners, we've been engaging with local startups and businesses who have existing operations collecting end-of-life materials (such as food waste, non-traditional recyclables, etc.) that could benefit from leveraging robotic pickup to streamline their operations. We have engaged with Scrap Soils, Brother Nature Produce, Recycle Here!, Human-I-T, and Ecosphere Organics for our pilots.
To recruit interested participants for the pilots, we're working with local neighborhood associations and community groups.
How is Orange Sparkle Ball engaging with the city of Detroit?
For permitting, we've been working with the City of Detroit's Office of Mobility Innovation to pilot in the Transportation Innovation Zone.
Read about our first TIZ permit here.
Read about our second TIZ permit here.

On PENNY PICKUP - the Autonomous Robotic Pickup Platform

Did Orange Sparkle Ball receive a grant from the state of Michigan to go forward with this project?
Orange Sparkle Ball was awarded a Real World Deployment Grant from the Michigan Economic Development Corporation's Office of Future Mobility and Electrification. This grant is enabling us to put our Autonomous Robotic Pickup Platform into action through a series of pilots in the Transportation Innovation Zone of Detroit, established by the Office of Mobility Innovation at The City of Detroit.
Where is this operational?
For permitting, we've been working with the City of Detroit's Office of Mobility Innovation to pilot in the Transportation Innovation Zone. Our first pilot will be in North Corktown where autonomous ground robots will navigate designated routes in the North Corktown neighborhood of Detroit to pick up food waste for composting. For pilots 2-4, we are servicing the entire Transportation Innovation Zone. Post-piloting, we hope to expand to other areas of Detroit as we continue to iteratively test this pickup platform.
When is this going on?
We will be launching a series of pilots beginning in June and operating through the end of the year.
What kinds of materials does the robot take?
Long-term, we intend for the robot to take a wide variety of non-traditional recyclables and specialty waste including but not limited to food waste, electronic waste, batteries, paint, metal scraps, waste oil, etc.
1. Our first pilot will explore the pickup of food waste for composting.
2. Our second pilot will explore the pickup of plastic bags for recycling.
3. Our third pilot will explore the pickup of small electronics for refurbishment.
4. Our fourth pilot will explore the pickup of multiple types of materials (plastic bags, small electronics, and commercial food waste) for responsible end-of-life processing.
What are the goals of these pilots?
Our goals for this platform will be to understand the long-term logistics and market for the autonomous pickup of materials as well as the overall benefit this platform could provide to the city of Detroit. Our 3 primary objectives are:
- ITERATIVE PILOTS: Iteratively conduct pilots to test multiple use cases to build a sustainable, comprehensive pickup platform.
- LOGISTICS OF PICKUP: Understand the process and complexities associated with pickup of various types of end-of-life materials.
- CAPTURED MARKET: Understand community benefit and interest for each selected use case and how compounded offerings could influence platform use.
What kind of metrics are being measured?

Number of users
Total volume of materials picked up over the course of the pilots
Number of offerings on the platform
Acceptability of the platform by users
Platform use across demographically diverse neighborhoods

On THE PILOTS

PILOT 1 - ROBOTIC PICKUP OF FOOD WASTE FOR COMPOSTING
Status: Completed

What: Robotic pickup of food waste for composting.
When: This pilot will run for 1 month from June 17th through July 14th.
Where: North Corktown
Results: LINK

PILOT 2 - ROBOTIC PICKUP OF PLASTIC BAGS FOR RECYCLING
Status: Completed

What: Robotic pickup of plastic bags for recycling.
When: This pilot will run for 1 month from September 9th through November 4th.
Where: Transportation Innovation Zone
Results: In Progress - Check back for our comprehensive case study and pilot video!

PILOT 3 - ROBOTIC PICKUP OF SMALL ELECTRONICS FOR REFURBISHMENT
Status: Preparing for Launch

What: Robotic pickup of small electronics for refurbishment. For this pilot, small electronics will be limited to Tablets, Smartphones, Pagers, Cell Phones, PDAs, MP3 Players, Gaming Systems, Laptops, Keyboards & Mice, and USB Cables, but we hope to expand materials as we continue to increase the scope of pickup offerings.
When: This pilot will be a 1-day tech drive; tentative date is November 13th.
Where: Transportation Innovation Zone
How to participate: Collect your unwanted technology and schedule a time slot for it to be picked up. If donating technology with personal data, be sure to wipe data from the device prior to pickup!

PILOT 4 - ROBOTIC PICKUP OF MULTIPLE MATERIALS FOR PROCESSING
Status: Preparing for Launch

What: We will be collecting plastic grocery bags, small electronics, AND commercial food waste for responsible end-of-life processing.
When: This pilot will be a month-long pilot; tentative launch date is November 18th
Where: Transportation Innovation Zone
How to participate: Collect your unwanted technology, plastic bags, and/or commercial food waste and schedule a time slot for it to be picked up.

On Robots

Are the robots safe?
The robots are equipped with extensive safety features including automatic stop, dynamic obstacle detection, and more. For the pilots, the robots are being monitored, remotely and in-person (as needed). In the event the robot needs assistance or recovery, someone will arrive on-site to assist it.
Will the robot go into the road?
Robot partners will be optimized for sidewalks and will avoid busy roadways. In certain situations where sidewalks are unnavigable, the robot will utilize bike lanes and road shoulders.
Does the robot have cameras / is the robot recording me?
Footage around the bots is captured to improve routing, train the system, and improve guest experience. Data will be deleted at the conclusion of the pilots.
What happens if something happens to the bot?
For the pilots, the robots are being monitored, remotely and in-person (as needed). In the event the robot needs assistance or recovery, someone will arrive on-site to assist it.

On Involvement

We are seeking participants for our upcoming pilots. We will be collecting plastic bags, small electronics, and commercial food waste for responsible end-of-life processing as a free service. These pilots will service the Corktown area within the Transportation Innovation Zone. We are working to recruit participants in Corktown, Hubbard-Richard, and North Corktown. If you are interested in participating, please go to https://www.pennypickup.com/ to sign up.

What is expected of pilot participants?

1 month of participation
Collect materials throughout the week/month
Select time slot where you’ll be available to load your materials into the robot

I’m a local business that collects materials for refurbishing, repurposing, or recycling - How can I get involved?
Please reach out to hannah@orangesparkleball.com if you are interested in partnering with us on a robotic pickup pilot.