Real Life Wall-E

Posted by anthonykuo , Jul, 2009 @ 10:21 am

trash prowler in italy reminds me of wall-e

No, it isn’t as cuddly (but it sure is cute) and nowhere near as intelligent or sentient as Disney-Pixar’s WALL-E. A group of Italian researchers are testing a way to replace the garbage truck with a robot that can collect trash on demand. The robot called DustCart has been zipping through the streets of the city of Peccioli in the Tuscany region of Italy.

How does it work? According to Wired, “a quick call summoned the DustCart to the door, where it asked for the personal ID number that identifies the user and tracks the garbage. The robot also asked to classify the trash as organic, recyclable or waste. It then opened its belly bin, collected the trash and zoomed out.”

The robot vacuums streets and collects garbage from residents’ doors. It also has equipment to detect pollution in the air, but I question its accuracy given that it operates in very close proximity to garbage.

DustCart is part of a $3.9 million research project to improve urban hygiene.

Tags: clean, cute, disney, dust, garbage, pixar, recycle, robot, vacuum, wall-e