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DustCart Robotic Trash Can From DustBot
DustCart is a shiny robotic trash can has been created by a group of Italian researchers. Developed as part of the DustBot project, a $3.9 million research program that is trying to improve urban hygiene.
(DustCart robotic trash can)
The DustCart robot collects trash from citizen’s doors. In a demonstration by the scientists, 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
It's only a prototype, and cannot yet navigate crowded streets (it can evade fixed obstacles). SF fans have been prepared for this future for generations. In his excellent 1959 short story Robot Justice, Harry Harrison wrote about a far more evolved robotic trash can able to detect such unhygienic behavior as spitting on the sidewalk..
Even as the saliva hit the spotless sidewalk, a waste can twenty feet away stirred into life. It rotated on hidden wheels and soundlessly rolled towards him.A flexible arm licked out and quickly swabbed the sidewalk clean. Then the can squatted like a mechanical Buddha while a speaker rasped to life in its metal insides. A tinny mechanical voice addressed Carl.
"Carl Tritt, you have violated Local Ordinance #bd-14-668 by expectorating on a public sidewalk. The sentence is two days. (Read more about the Robotic Trash Can)
Via Wired.
Scroll down for more stories in the same category. (Story submitted 7/9/2009)
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