A motorized sweeper or mechanical sweeper is a vehicle designed for cleaning public spaces such as roads, sidewalks, parks, parking lots, etc. It can be equipped with rotating brushes, a watering device and a vacuum cleaner.[1]​.

The first mechanical sweeper was designed by British engineer Joseph Whitworth in the 1840s with the aim of removing rubbish from the unsanitary streets of the city of Manchester.[2]​

The Withworth sweeper was made up of rows of brooms mounted symmetrically on two endless chains, each stretched by two pulleys on which they were wound and which pushed the mud forward to transport it to a dump truck.[3]​

In 1865 the modified Withworth machine began to be used on the streets of Paris.[3]​

In the United States, the first street sweeper was patented in 1849 by C.S. Bishop.[4][5]​

In 1896 Charles B. Brooks, applying Bishop's sweeper to a truck, created the prototype of the self-propelled sweeper.[6]​.

The most common modern sweepers are mechanical brush ones, vacuum-assisted ones, regenerative air ones and vacuum-assisted dry ones, the latter being more effective since they do not require the use of water and employ a sophisticated filtration system.[7]​

Dry vacuum sweepers have two rotating brushes at the front capable of capturing most of the debris with a size above between 10 and 3 microns "Micrometer (unit of length)") (µm)[8]​[7]​ which are then pushed by a mechanical broom or sucked down a chute and stored in a container at the back of the machine.