GOTHENBURG, SWEDEN — Robots might soon find their way into a very specialized, vocational side of the trucking industry, according to one truck manufacturer.

“Imagine a robot that quietly and discreetly enters your neighborhood, collects your refuse bin and empties it into the refuse truck. It is done without waking the sleeping families and without heavy lifting for the refuse truck’s driver,” the Volvo Group said in a recent press release.

It’s about ‘ROAR’, a joint project aiming to develop tomorrow’s smart transport systems.

Volvo is currently working with Chalmers University of Technology and Mälardalen University in Sweden, Penn State University in the U.S., and the waste-recycling company Renova. They’re developing a robot that interacts with the refuse truck and its driver to get the collection work done.

ROAR, stands for ‘Robot-based Autonomous Refuse handling’, and the goal is to introduce a robot that, with instructions sent from a truck’s operating system, can collect refuse bins in a neighborhood, bring them to the truck, and empty them. All of this happens under the supervision of the truck’s driver.

This technology can be applied in many areas, said Volvo. Refuse collection is just one example.

The three universities are part of Volvo Group’s Academic Partner Program, a network of 12 schools collaborating with the truck maker for long-term co-operation in research and recruitment. Mälardalen University will design the robot itself, while at Chalmers University students will work on the overall operating system. At Penn State’s Thomas D. Larson Pennsylvania Transportation Institute, the graphics, communication systems, and control panel for the truck driver will be developed.

This work will continue until June 2016, when the technology will be tested on a vehicle developed by Renova.