A smog-eating robot will soon hit the streets in five cities in Italy, Sweden and Spain, Italian researchers said on Thursday.
The DustBot robots, invented by eight research teams operating throughout Europe, will be at the beck and call of city residents, who will be able to ring a special number to request up-to-date information on pollution levels in the air.
The multi-purpose robots are capable of identifying and eliminating sulphur, benzene, and other noxious substances, and they can also physically transport waste out of city centres.
Italy's Sant'Anna university research institute is the coordinating institution behind the project. It has just won a bid for nearly two million euros from the EU, which covers more than half of total project costs, currently estimated at around nearly three million euros.
Over the next three years, the research teams involved in the project will work on perfecting the technology behind the ecological robots. They will soon be scouring the streets of three Italian cities - Massa, Pontedera and Peccioli - as well as Bilbao in Spain and Sweden's Orebro.
