Four legs, a vacuum cleaner and lots and lots of artificial intelligence. No, it's not the latest gadget for technological dog walkers, but the future of waste collection on our beaches. Get ready to meet VERO, the robot developed by the Laboratory Dynamic Legged Systems atItalian Institute of Technology. A robot that turns coastal cleaning into a four-legged adventure.
A very special dog for waste collection
Imagine being on the beach, lying in the sun, when suddenly you see a robot dog walking by with a vacuum cleaner on its back. No, it is not a parody of the well-known Black Mirror episode, but the reality of waste collection of the future. VERO, Short for Vacuum cleaner Equipped RObot, is the latest creation of the Italian Institute of Technology, thanks to the team coordinated by Claudio Semini. A mechanical quadruped who, armed with cameras and artificial intelligence, wanders the beaches hunting for cigarette butts.
And to think that we once worried that dogs might eat strange things on the beach. Now we have a robot dog that "eats" them, or rather: aspirates them voluntarily. And it's good: of the approximately six trillion cigarettes inhaled every year, it is estimated that over 4 trillion cigarette butts are simply thrown on the ground.
Technology at the service of the environment
VERO is not just a nice technological gadget. It is a serious proposal to address one of the most annoying problems on our beaches: cigarette butts. These small wastes are among the most common and harmful to the marine environment. But how does VERO find and collect them?
The secret lies in its suction legs and its artificial “brain”. Thanks to two depth cameras and a convolutional neural network, VERO is able to identify cigarette butts in the sand and plan the best path to pass over them and vacuum them up. It's as if he has a built-in satellite navigator, (but instead of looking for the nearest bar, he looks for the rubbish).
An investment worth… $50.000?
Now, before you rush out and buy one for your private beach, there is one small detail to consider: the price. TRUE is robot based AlienGo of the Chinese company Unitree, a research model that costs about $50.000. Yes, you read that right: fifty thousand dollars. Do you want to think about it?
I'd try to replicate it using a beefed-up version of the equally impressive (and athletic) €2 Unitree Go 1500.
The challenges of a four-legged vacuum cleaner
Of course, like any new technology, VERO still has some problems to solve. For example, it is currently not as fast and agile as standard Unitree robots. Imagine a vacuum cleaner trying to do parkour and you get the idea.
Also, there's the matter of sand. With four suction nozzles moving across the beach, VERO risks sucking up more sand than butts. We could end up with a robot with a belly full of sand, like a child after a day at the beach!
Is the future of waste collection… nailed down?
But let's not stop there: researchers have big dreams for the future of VERO. Why limit yourself to waste collection when you can garden? Or attach a nailer to its paws and use it to nail wooden planks.
It could certainly save a human from back pain, as long as someone is willing to trust an autonomous robot dog with a nailer.
What could possibly go wrong, right? Well, at least we wouldn't have to worry about splinters on wooden docks anymore.
The beach of the future: clean and robotic
Jokes aside, the idea of VERO is fascinating. An autonomous robot that cleans our beaches non-stop, without complaining about the heat or asking for ice cream breaks. It could be the solution to keeping our coastlines clean and free from harmful waste.
Of course, there are still many challenges to overcome. The speed, the efficiency, the cost. But hey, Rome wasn't built in a day, and neither was the perfect garbage robot. In the meantime, while we wait for VERO to become the lifeguard of the future, perhaps we could start throwing our butts in the bins?
So, just to give him a hand!
