Patent ID: 8092141

Claim:
A mechanically-liftable and modularly-assembled combination of a refuse container and a side-loading, first robotic arm mechanism for use with a front-loading, waste collecting vehicle, where the refuse container has a rear and a front, and the container defines a total refuse containment volume for containing a corresponding total volume of refuse transferrable thereto by the side-loading first robotic arm mechanism, where the vehicle has a frontwardly facing engagement means for disengageably engaging with and mechanically lifting the modularly-assembled combination of the refuse container and the first robotic arm mechanism, the engagement means including at least one of a fork means and a fork-free means for disengageably engaging with and mechanically lifting the combination, and where said modularly-assembled combination is characterized by: the side-loading first robotic arm mechanism being provided as part of a first module that is modularly-assemblable into the combination such that, when the first module is assembled into said combination, the first robotic arm mechanism can have a major portion of its mass positioned rearward of a position where a rearmost portion of said total refuse containment volume is positioned or will be positioned upon completion of assembly of the modularly-assembled combination; the side-loading first robotic arm mechanism having a retractable side arm for retractably reaching out to grasp a waste container or waste and for translating the grasped waste container or waste for disposal of its corresponding waste into said total refuse containment volume; the modularly-assembled combination having lift-receiving means for operatively receiving the frontwardly facing engagement means of a provided, front-loading vehicle; and the modularly-assembled combination being provided with clearance means or being adapted to engageably cooperate with provided clearance means where said clearance means functions to keep the major mass portion of the first robotic arm mechanism clear of collision with one or more parts of the provided, front-loading vehicle during at least one of a first operation where the mechanically-liftable and modularly-assembled combination is mechanically lifted for dumping of its refuse contents into a rearward hopper portion of the waste collecting vehicle and a second operation where the retractable side arm of the first robotic arm mechanism is reaching out to grasp the waste container or waste.