Argentine engineer builds trash-eating robot with discarded parts

An Argentine engineer has pieced together a robot able to find and "eat" trash with parts salvaged from discarded electronic devices, local media reported Thursday.

Nano, one of two prototypes, "will open his mouth only when he detects, through several sensors, that the item thrown out belongs to the category that he has 'to eat,' for example, iron," creator Pablo Romanos was quoted by state news agency Telam as saying.

Nano's sensors were salvaged from "an Xbox console that the recyclers found in the street," added Romanos, an electrical engineer who is also a professor at University of the Merchant Marine.

The sensors allow the robot to follow orders "in the same way that kids play this game with signs and gestures," explained the engineer.

Nano is also equipped with speakers and will soon have a computer screen, all of which were recycled items, so it can instruct others how to classify and reuse trash, according to the report.

"Sometimes people see the color-coded garbage bins in the street, but don't know where to throw what, so the idea is to have the robot teach them," Romanos said, adding that he hopes to have similar robots stationed at schools "to teach kids in a fun way how to recycle."

In building the prototypes, which also incorporate components from printers, Romanos had the help of an architect, a specialized mechanic and his students.

The inventors say the project is "a great opportunity" to eradicate garbage once and for all. Enditem