A remotely controlled trash barrel robot follows a janitor through the streets of Manhattan. (Provided)

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This story was condensed from a feature in the Cornell Chronicle.

By Patricia Waldron

How do New Yorkers react to robots that approach them in public looking for trash? Surprisingly well, actually. Cornell researchers built and remotely controlled two trash barrel robots—one for landfill waste and one for recycling—at a plaza in Manhattan to see how people would respond to the seemingly autonomous robots.

Most people welcomed them and happily gave them trash, though a minority found them to be creepy. The researchers now have plans to see how other communities behave.

Meanwhile, if you’re a resident of NYC: these trash barrel robots may be coming soon to a borough near you.

A team led by Wendy Ju, associate professor at the Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute at Cornell Tech and the Technion, constructed the robots from a blue or gray barrel mounted on recycled hoverboard parts. They equipped the robots with a 360-degree camera and operated them using a joystick.

“The robots drew significant attention, promoting interactions with the systems and among members of the public,” says co-author Frank Bu, a doctoral student in computer science. “Strangers even instigated conversations about the robots and their implications.”

Strangers even instigated conversations about the robots and their implications.
Doctoral student Frank Bu

Bu and Ilan Mandel ’19, a doctoral student in information science, presented the study, “Trash Barrel Robots in the City,” at a conference in March 2023.

In their video footage and interviews, people expressed appreciation for the service the robots provided and were happy to help move them when they got stuck, or to clear away chairs and other obstacles.

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Some people summoned the robot when they had trash—waving it like a treat for a dog—and others felt compelled to “feed” the robots waste when they approached.

However, several people voiced concerns about the cameras and public surveillance. Some raised middle fingers to the robots and one person even knocked one over.

People tended to assume that the robots were “buddies” who were working together, and some expected them to race each other for the trash. As a result, some people threw their trash into the wrong barrel.

Some people summoned the robot when they had trash, waving it like a treat for a dog.

Researchers call this type of research, in which a robot appears autonomous but people are controlling it from behind the scenes, a Wizard of Oz experiment. It’s helpful during prototype development, because it can flag potential problems robots are likely to encounter when interacting with humans in the wild.

Ju, who is also a member of the Department of Information Science in the Cornell Ann S. Bowers College of Computing and Information Science, had previously deployed a trash barrel robot on the Stanford University campus, where people had similarly positive interactions.

Now, Ju and her team are expanding to encompass other parts of the city.

“Everyone is sure that their neighborhood behaves very differently,” she says. “So the next thing that we’re hoping to do is a five-borough trash barrel robot study.”

Top: A remotely controlled trash barrel robot follows a janitor through the streets of Manhattan. (Provided)

Published April 27, 2023