DustCart robot
The DustCart is a small robot that researchers have
developed to navigate itself around the city streets and collect people’s trash
on demand. The robot is in a human size; it is balanced on a Segway base and
can navigate itself to stop outside your door.
This is a EU- funded project.
Professor
Paolo Dario, the coordinator of DustBot said: 'We've taken the very best and
most advanced robotics components to build DustCart which solves a very real
problem for waste authorities across Europe,' explains Professor Dario.
'Yes,
it is a bin on wheels – there's the drawer in which you place your bag of
rubbish or recycling – but there's a lot more to the robot than that.'
The DustCart runs on
lithium-battery engines, the robot prototype is designed to scoop up the waste
left by chronically scatterbrained citizens, it is also equipped with on-board
sensors, it can measure atmospheric pollutants like sulfur oxide,
benzene, ozone, and nitrogen oxide. The DustCart is capable of sweeping trough main
streets and small back alleys, this make the robot to be more effective than
the conventional garbage trucks that may have some trouble navigating in small
and narrow alleys. The DustCarts is also
more effective by that it can show up at people’s doorstep and collect all
household materials.
Once they deposit each type within
their robotically convenient interiors, then they go on and return the
materials to a central sorting location. The robot can also show up if the
residents have an emergency garbage situation, they can contact the DustCart
via mobile phone and it will report for duty.
In
May 2010, DustCart entered a two-month period of service in the small town of
Peccioli in Italy – around 100 households being served by two DustCart robots.
The
DustCart has performed demonstrations in six European locations, plus two in
Japan and one in South Korea.
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