Italy scientists develop a new quadruped robot: specially designed for cleaning cigarette butts on the beach

Fast technology news on July 31, according to media reports, Italy scientists have developed a four-legged robot called VERO, which can intelligently identify and clean up garbage on various terrains, especially those cigarette butts that are difficult to handle.

It is reported that the VERO is not only a simple mechanical device, it combines advanced vacuum cleaning technology with a flexible four-legged walking system, and is specially designed to deal with the growing problem of cigarette butt contamination around the world.

Studies have pointed out that discarded cigarette butts will continue to release harmful chemicals and microplastic particles into the natural environment, especially the marine ecosystem, during the degradation process, and have become the second most common source of untreated garbage after plastic bottles, especially in complex terrain that is difficult to be touched by traditional wheeled or crawler cleaning equipment.

With its built-in advanced neural network and high-precision on-board camera, VERO realizes the accurate identification and positioning of all kinds of garbage. Its unique convolutional neural network model, like an insightful "eye", can quickly lock on to garbage targets, especially cigarette butts hidden in crevices or in the grass.

Then, thanks to the vacuum cleaners on its four nimble and powerful mechanical legs, VERO was able to pick up the garbage one by one with unerring accuracy, demonstrating a high level of efficiency and precision.

In rigorous field testing, VERO failed to achieve a 100% cleanliness rate, but its 90% cigarette butt recovery rate was impressive. This means that, if widely deployed, VERO will significantly reduce the number of cigarette butts that end up in the ocean, which is of inestimable value to protect the marine ecology and maintain the health of the earth's environment.

What's even more exciting is that the design of the VERO is both programmable and scalable, leaving a lot of room for future diversified expansion of functions. According to the researchers, VERO will not only continue to optimize its waste removal capabilities, but will also be able to easily transform into an agricultural spraying assistant, an infrastructure inspection expert, and even an intelligent collaboration partner for construction projects, demonstrating its huge application potential and unlimited possibilities in multiple fields.

Italy scientists develop a new quadruped robot: specially designed for cleaning cigarette butts on the beach