ECJ EUROPEAN Cleaning Journal

A group of Italian scientists have built a quadruped robot capable of identifying litter and picking up smaller items using leg-mounted vacuums.

VERO has been designed to seek out small items of refuse such as cigarette butts. Discarded butts are said to pose a risk to the world's oceans because they release toxic chemicals and microplastics as they break down. They are also described as being one of the most common items of undisposed waste and are often found in terrains that are hard to reach for wheeled and tracked robots.

Cleaning up beaches can be a particular challenge because the sand makes it hard to drag wheeled rubbish receptacles over the terrain.

VERO uses a neural network and on-board cameras to identify items of litter as it moves along. An operator sets up a field target for the four-legged robot which then walks slowly across the entire area.

When VERO was tested in six different types of outdoor terrain it was found to be able to pick up 90 per cent of the cigarette butts identified. The robot can also steady itself while collecting rubbish by means of an Intel RealSense depth camera mounted on its chin.

Designed and built by a team of researchers from the Dynamic Legged Systems laboratory at the Italian Institute of Technology in Genoa, the machine is still at the testing stage. However, researchers say VERO's design could be programmed and engineered to carry out other tasks such as spraying crops, looking for weaknesses in infrastructure and helping with construction projects.