“Introducing VERO: The Quadruped Robot Trained to Eliminate Litter Efficiently”
Looking for a solution to the never-ending problem of litter? Look no further than VERO, the Vacuum-cleaner Equipped RObot! This nifty little quadruped robot, trained by researchers at the Italian Institute of Technology, is on a mission to seek and eliminate litter with the help of a vacuum cleaner backpack and strategically placed nozzles on its ankles.
Built on the AlienGo robo-dog platform from Chinese company Unitree, VERO is a high-performance robot designed for research purposes. While the AlienGo robo-dog comes with a hefty price tag of around US$50,000, researchers believe that a more affordable version could be created by using a specced-up version of the Unitree Go 2, priced at US$1,600.
VERO is specifically designed to target cigarette butts, one of the most common forms of litter. Equipped with depth cameras and a convolutional neural network, this smart robot is able to detect butts on the ground, navigate its path to walk over them, activate the vacuum to suck them up, and continue on its mission without stopping.
While the concept of an autonomous litter-removing robot is exciting, VERO still has a long way to go in terms of agility and speed compared to other robots in the Unitree lineup. The potential applications for a robot like VERO are endless – imagine having a robotic assistant that can clean up beaches, sidewalks, or public spaces with ease.
Although the current design of VERO may not be practical for everyday use just yet, the possibilities for future developments are exciting to consider. The researchers suggest that the vacuum attachment could be replaced with other tools, such as a gardening implement or a nail gun for construction purposes.
If you’re interested in learning more about VERO and the innovative research behind it, check out the Journal of Field Robotics for the full details. Who knows, we may one day see a fleet of litter-eliminating robots roaming our streets, making the world a cleaner and more efficient place one butt at a time.