29 May 2009
In Britain, we're used to putting out our rubbish for the bin-collectors every week, but what if we lived somewhere where the bin lorries couldn't get to, or wanted to get rid of our rubbish at different times?
In Italy, a prototype street-cleaning robot called 'Dustbot' has just been unveiled. It's a mobile rubbish bin that can by called to your house using your mobile phone to collect your rubbish!
It uses GPS navigation (like a car's Sat Nav) and a gyroscope to keep it upright and has other sensors to make sure it doesn't bump into anything.
The inventors of Dustbot hope it will be used by local councils around the world to collect rubbish from places that large bin lorries find it hard to get to.
Have a look at Dustbot in action at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/8072619.stm