Robot Dog Cleans Up Beaches With Foot-Mounted Vacuums

Of the six trillion-ish cigarettes inhaled every year, it’s estimated that over 4 trillion of the butts are just tossed onto the ground. Each one leeching over 700 different toxic chemicals into the environment. The robot autonomously locates things on the ground and then plans how to interact with those things using its feet.

VERO is a quadruped robot that uses its feet to remove cigarette butts. The robot is not very quick at the task, but unlike me it will never get fed up as long as it’s got energy in its battery, so speed is somewhat less important.