Scientists have invented a robot dog specifically designed to clean up one of the most common but often overlooked forms of pollution in the U.S. TikTok account FreeThink (@FreeThinkMedia) shared a video of a robot dog that "eats" discarded cigarette butts.
As mentioned in the video, it's estimated that over 4 trillion cigarette butts are discarded across the planet every year. This is alarming because the butts, or filters, are made primarily of plastic. They release thousands of toxins and plastic fibers into the surrounding environment.
@freethinkmedia This robot dog eats cigarette butts #futuretech #robots #environment ♬ original sound - freethink
The robot dog, called VERO (Vacuum-cleaner Equipped Robot), was designed by the Dynamic Legged Systems unit at the Italian Institute of Technology in Genoa. It has a vacuum mounted on its back and hoses that go down to each foot.
VERO is capable of autonomously locating things on the ground and figuring out how to interact with those things. It uses cameras and a neural network to detect cigarette butts. It picks them up without falling over, even when on uneven ground.
"It's been trained to identify cigarette butts specifically and then hunt them down," the video states. "It's a proof of concept that eventually you could train systems like this to identify and deal with things that are in places where it's just hard for a robot on wheels to get to."
Even though the number of cigarette smokers in the U.S. has drastically decreased over the years, from about 23% of adults in 2000 to about 12% in 2023, the pollution associated with the habit is still significant.
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Initial testing showed the robot can successfully pick up just under 90% of discarded cigarette butts in a variety of environments. VERO can stabilize three of its legs while picking up butts with the other. It can function on sand, stairs, or a multitude of uneven surfaces.
Its designers believe many industries can use it, including agriculture, construction, or even for inspecting cracks in infrastructure.
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