The shiny green robot with wide plastic eyes looks like it sprung out of the fictional world of Wall-E, and its friendly look helps people accept its presence in their lives. But people in the Italian town of Peccioli likely would have accepted it no matter what it looked like, given its purpose: cleaning up trash. Peccioli is home to one of the most advanced dumping sites in Italy, and trash is big business here.
Global Post has all the details on how the ‘DustCart’ was received and how exactly it works:
During a recent test-run at Peccioli’s main terrace, the future of garbage collection zoomed in on two wheels, rounded and shiny, devoid of arms, and with two big round inspiring eyes.
“We are about to begin,” said a researcher over a microphone.
The scientists had transformed the terrace into an outdoor laboratory, laying wires on the cobblestone, installing webcams at street corners, and setting up a control room to monitor DustCart’s every move.
“Our colleague will now simulate a user’s call,” said the researcher.
Like a taxi answering a call, DustCart rode across the terrace to meet the caller.
Once the robot arrived, it asked for a personal ID number that both identifies the user and tracks the garbage. It also asked for the kind of trash being dumped — organic, recyclable or waste. DustCart then opened its belly bin, collected the trash and took it to a fake dumping site.
Check out the whole story over at Global Post.
While many of us are a bit wary of the idea of living with robots, the DustCart is pretty cool. It’s pretty clear that we need a major overhaul of our waste management systems, and while a fleet of robots isn’t going to solve our problems, it’s an interesting way to approach them.
Link [Global Post]
