Your canine companion might be known to pick up a few unsavory finds on a walk, like, say, a spare chicken wing or cigarette butt — usually at the expense of their own health.
However, there’s a new “dog” on the block whose entire job is to dispose of that unsafe litter.
Meet VERO (Vacuum-cleaner Equipped RObot): a four-legged cleaning machine who is currently cleaning up Italy’s beaches.
Invented by the Dynamic Legged Systems unit at the Italian Institute of Technology in Genoa, VERO’s primary function is to suck cigarette butts off the ground.
Cigarette butts are some of the most pervasive pieces of beach debris — and are a particularly dangerous form of litter, leaching toxic chemicals into the environment for years. It’s estimated that over 4.5 trillion cigarette butts are simply tossed onto the ground every year.
So, VERO has a big job to do.
The robot has a commercial vacuum mounted on its back, with four hoses for “legs” that attach to each foot. Its custom 3D-printed nozzles allow the robot to move across the ground without tripping.
And best of all? VERO is capable of autonomously locating litter on the ground and deciding how to engage with things using its feet.
The design of VERO is based off of the AlienGo “robo-dog” from Chinese company Unitree, and while it doesn’t move quite as nimbly as Unitree’s designs — it still shows exciting promise.
Here’s how it works: First, operators find an area for VERO to clean and provide the robot with an exploration path to follow. Using onboard cameras and a neural network to detect cigarette butts, VERO sets off to suck up the cigarette butts in the vicinity.
The tricky part — aside from the robot’s need to filter out items that are supposed to be on the beach — is calculating a safe and stable position for the rest of its body while it uses one leg to suck up the found item. While it takes some processing, VERO is able to do this process on sand, stairs, or other uneven surfaces without falling over — and without stopping.
VERO’s creators say this is the first time that the legs of a legged robot are being used “concurrently” for motion, as well as a different task.
“Litter removal is often carried out manually by humans, which inherently lowers the amount of waste that can be effectively collected from the environment,” IIT’s researchers shared in their study on the robot, published in the Journal of Field Robotics.
“This is the first time that such a design and method was presented and successfully tested on a legged robot.”
Researchers conducted tests of VERO in six different outdoor environments and found that it could successfully collect just under 90% of cigarette butts.
While this is an exciting use case for the planet and its beautiful beaches, researchers suggest that VERO represents many other potential uses, like spraying weeds in crop fields, inspecting cracks in buildings, planting seeds, and more.
Having four legs capable of doing different tasks or holding different tools opens up a world of possibilities. But… maybe don’t hold that against your own dog.
Header image courtesy of Italian Institute of Technology
