They have been sweeping the streets of South Korea. They have disintegrated dust in Japan. They have gathered garbage in Italy. Now, in the Swedish town of Örebro, they will patrol the streets and put terror in the eyes of trash. I speak, of course, of DUSTBOT!
Dustbot
Dustobot is what we’ve all been longing for ever since we met R2-D2 and the other droids in Star Wars. Small, cute and friendly looking robots, slowly finding their way around on wheeled legs, doing stuff for us. Like taking out the trash. The Dustbot aims higher than just convenience though, it’s a one of these super-sophisticated tech project, funded by the European Commission, loads of researchers involed, development of new technique, etc.
Which of course is all very well. I however believe that the citizens of Örebro will not discuss the details too much, but instead enjoy the future that you can send a text message to Dustbot, and wait for the little bot to come rolling to you, happily swallowing whatever there is you want to get rid of (just don’t forget to tell the Dustbot what it is you’re throwing away, through clicking around for a while on it’s display).
Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter reports that Dustbot will roll out in Örebro at the end of July. For those who want more of the research, visit the (surprisingly super-ugly) website for project Dustbot.
Tags: Örebro, Dustbot, robots, The future
everydaytrash 
Tuesday, May 26, 2009 at 11:59 am |
You’re late on this one, Victor. Story’s old. In fact, they already made a movie about this little guy, it was the biggest hit of last summer, made by Pixar.
Tuesday, May 26, 2009 at 12:41 pm |
Well, true, but then again, wasn’t the movie about a future that has now arrived?
Tuesday, May 26, 2009 at 1:41 pm |
Yes, joking of course. Neat article. The philosophical implications are pretty staggering. I mean, if an urban environment is dirty and messy, is it perhaps a sign that cleanliness isn’t really a priority for the citizens that live there? My house is a mess not because I don’t have the time to clean it, it’s because I don’t consider it a priority. Is having a robot clean up after us really better than having a human do it? Is it more humane, or can they just do a better job? And what about the jobs lost to robots?
Monday, July 27, 2009 at 11:08 am |
[…] Future, Captured By Victor Bernhardtz Remember Dustbot, the cute little robots that are being developed to slave for humans who want their trash taken […]