Imagen del sensor visual del vehículo. Fotografía de Abraham Blázquez. FCC Environment in Madrid:artificial intelligence applied to street cleaning The solution developed allows proactive and automatic detection of abandoned waste next to the bins FCC Medio Ambiente has incorporated a new project into its street-cleaning service in Madrid that will enable inspection vehicles to carry out visual recognition work using artificial intelligence (AI) to detect waste that is deposited outside the containers. This initiative, a pioneer in Spain, has been developed by the Information Technology Department and the Madrid branch of FCC Medio Ambiente, which is responsible for the street cleaning contract for lot 6 in the capital, in collaboration with a company specialising in AI, Advisory Experts, which has activated the project in Carabanchel, Villaverde and Usera, districts in which an average of 2,100 abandoned waste collection actions are recorded every day. With a data feed device through artificial vision, and through the use of visual sensors and the development of algorithms based on AI and Machine Learning, the solution developed allows the proactive and automatic detection of waste abandoned next to the containers. The project seeks to eradicate a problem that greatly affects the quality of the service, causing sources of dirt, significant aesthetic problems in the urban landscape and numerous complaints from citizens. This service reduces the average response time for this type of incident by more than 50%. It also contributes to reducing the energy consumption of the vehicles, which increases efficiency and, consequently, the useful life of the equipment. The activation of this innovative project was possible after intense training and calibration of the sensors and the RGB camera to achieve high precision in detecting waste, during which data analysis, algorithm training and parameter adjustment were key to achieving the best possible results. This training was completed with recording sessions with the vehicle in the real environment of the streets of Madrid so that the system could adapt to different scenarios and lighting and weather conditions. In order to meet the requirements of data protection legislation, the system also pixelates people and vehicles that may appear in the images. An intelligent solution for the detection and proactive removal of abandoned waste Optimisation of the waste collection service 50 I INNOVATION