Robots teaching recycling: Towards improving environmental literacy of children

Abstract

The present pollution problem can be partially attributed to the lack of empathy for learning any ecological and environmental literacy skills. Although robotics in education is increasing, there has been a lack of interest towards developing devices designed to teach children how to be environmentally conscious, and in particular, how to recycle. This gap is the basis for our robot, which we call the Smart Trash Junior, a mechatronic trashcan that uses vision recognition to identify recyclable objects and enters into a dialogue that educates children, within elementary schools, how to recycle.