McNeese Students Build Robot Out of a Trashcan

Calcasieu Parish Police Jury needed a robot and McNeese State University students delivered. 

Students in the department of engineering and computer science worked with Calcasieu Parish litter manager, Wyvette Pryor-Cousin and the O’Carroll Group to turn a trashcan into a robot. 

Trashformer, as it’s called, is the new mascot for the Pick It Up Calcasieu campaign. The parish will use it to help educate children about litter. 

Chiamaka Onwude, a senior computer engineering student, was part of the team of students who designed, built and programmed the robot and wrote the user’s manual. 

“At first glance, it looks like a regular trashcan on wheels, but when a switch is flipped, it expands to reveal a head, shoulders and an extendable arm that is ready to pick up trash,” she said. 

The students designed the robot not only to be functional but also to engage and educate children about the importance of keeping the environment clean. According to Onwude, the robot uses integrated sound cues that add a fun, interactive element to make it more engaging for the audience. 

The robot was built with parts mostly of Gobilda system of robot components from ServoCity, Amazon and other local stores. The team also designed and 3D-printed custom pieces at McNeese using polylactic acid filament. The robot’s control system combines a GoBilda controller and a Raspberry Pi programmed in Python, allowing for both manual and automated control. 

Other team members included Josemaria Ezejelue and Hafsah Khan, who are both computer science graduates, David Okpo, an electrical engineer graduate, and Alfred Okorocha, a senior majoring in computer science. They were guided by professors Dr. Catherine Anderson and Mitchell Morgan.

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