We’ve seen robot dogs given some interesting purposes. They’ve been security guards, AI agents, and even sniper rifles. The VERO, a robot dog created by the Italian Institute of Technology (IIT), is a vacuum cleaner.
VERO stands for “Vacuum-cleaner Equipped RObot”. As acronyms go it’s a bit of a stretch. But not as much of a stretch as the design for this little critter. You might imagine a robot dog/vacuum cleaner manipulating a traditional pipe or a Roomba with legs. That’s… only sort of right.
It’s a VERO. Nice
The IIT’s Dynamic Legged Unit designed its quadrupedal vacuum cleaner to tidy up beaches in Genoa. It’s not after everything on the beach, though it could probably do some extra tidying up. Instead, it’s using this year’s other buzzword — AI — to go after cigarette butts left on the beach by inconsiderate smokers.
It does this by using the cameras and sensors of a Boston Dynamics’ Spot-like quadruped (it’s actually a R900,000 Unitree Aliengo) and vacuum hoses connected to each leg to target the offending litter. The design is intentional, if somewhat impractical for a vacuum cleaner. The beaches in Genoa are difficult to navigate for wheeled robots and won’t provide the sort of targeted suction needed to hoover up mostly cigarette butts.
VERO must also be able to climb stairs since there are plenty of them on the Italian beachfront. There’s no point in turning it loose on the sand and leaving all the other litter (and the charging station) in an inaccessible er… spot.
But this isn’t all the robot is capable of doing. The programming and sensors needed to make this project work — and reports indicate that VERO can catch about 90% of the cigarette butts it is after — are essential to turning the robotic dog to other more specific tasks. Like, perhaps, planting a field, helping with construction work, or performing surface assessments as it goes.