Published on 11/26/2007
Japan is extremely big on robots, and a group of companies have already released an autonomous ladybug-shaped robot that is meant to clean public restrooms at highway rest areas. Measuring 1 meter tall and 1.35 meters long, the Lady Bird robot (as it has been dubbed) will come with water tanks, brushes as well as other tools required for heavy duty scrubbing. The inclusion of obstacle detectors make it capable of keeping restrooms clean without bumping into folks all the time. Heck, it can even use its microphones, speech recognition capabilities and a voice synthesizer to converse with restroom users, although don't expect to pour out your life story to the Lady Bird and expect it to come up with gems of advice. This unique robot has a target release date of March 2009 and is tipped to retail for $30,000 each.