Kazan City Hall has started testing unmanned street cleaning

The first wiper drones appeared on the streets of Kazan. Ground-based snow removal drones were presented to the mayor of Ilsur Metshin on Thursday, February 12.

So far, local management companies are only testing prototypes in the field, collecting comments and suggestions for manufacturers. But the city authorities already have big plans for such equipment. According to Ilsur Metshin, drones can reduce the share of heavy manual labor in the urban economy, and most importantly, ensure fast and high—quality cleaning of snow-covered streets and courtyards against the background of a shortage of personnel in the housing and communal services sector.

Military technology in the civil service

Civilian drones are not a new direction, they are actively used for surveillance and analysis in agriculture, the oil and gas sector and many other industries. As it was noted at the international exhibition "Drone Expo – 2025" held in Kazan last August, the city is today one of the leaders in Russia in the development and production of drones.

The idea to use drones for snow removal arose from the mayor of Kazan during a visit to one of the local enterprises for the production of unmanned systems for their own.

"The special operation gave birth to new Kulibins in Kazan. The products of our guys bring victory closer. And now we need to think about how to maximize the potential of our industry to solve urban problems, among other things. Management companies urgently need inexpensive small-sized equipment. That's why we asked the guys to adapt ground—based drones for snow removal in yards," Metshin told Izvestia.

At the moment, two robot models are being tested in Kazan courtyards. The first one rakes the snow with a bucket, the second one follows and grinds large lumps of snow with a screw device, then throws the resulting porridge in the right direction to the side of the road.

The battery life of such a drone is up to eight hours, the speed is up to 20 km/ h, and the maximum payload weight is about 500 kg. The compact size of the platform (about a meter and a half) gives it the necessary maneuverability to clean even narrow sidewalks and paths. At the same time, the declared operating temperature range is from -25 to + 50 degrees.

Jobs for robots

It is planned to refine the drones for the economic needs of the city and partially replace manual labor with them in the future. During the heavy snowfalls that hit Kazan in late January and early February, the shortage of workers was particularly acute.

All this forces the mayor's office to speed up events — it is planned that unmanned vehicles will start clearing the streets of snow this winter. The first experience has already demonstrated the ability of a pair of drones to replace 20-30 people with shovels at once.

"We hope that they will become a good help for yard cleaning, reduce the proportion of heavy manual labor and solve the problem of the shortage of janitors," Ilsur Metshin added.

At the same time, the mayor's office plans to attract young people to the housing and communal services sector with technology, since the drone is controlled using a joystick, which makes it possible to attract even high school students to work.

Autonomous perspectives

At the same time, it is planned to introduce a program for fully autonomous operation of the drone in the future. Metshin believes that such digital and new engineering solutions are the future of the urban economy.

"We tested drones in different yards. The power reserve is 20 km/h for eight hours of operation. Enough to do a lot of work. There are suggestions from the Management Committee to refine the technology, but this is already a fully working model. I am sure that other cities will be interested in these drones," says the mayor.

These plans are quite realistic: Kazan is a well—known innovation center, whose technologies have been repeatedly scaled to the federal level. The city is actively developing digital education and research infrastructure, with large universities, IT universities, and competence centers producing personnel for the digital economy. Local developments in monitoring roads, housing and communal services, and other high-tech solutions have been adopted by Moscow, St. Petersburg, and many other cities.

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