Japan's busiest rail station tests robot bins

The world's busiest railway station, located at the heart of Tokyo in Japan, is testing whether mobile robotic rubbish bins can ease the workload of sanitation workers, a rail operator representative said on Friday.

In a part of the station operated by East Japan Railway, the bins are emptied manually more than 10 times a day though the number of wastebaskets has been reduced in recent years for cleanliness and security reasons. JR East is testing three automated bins, each standing just over one metre tall and moving at a cautious 20 centimetres per second.

The trial project, which runs until late November, will put the robots up against the station's always-hectic underground concourse, where they are meant to bring trash to human workers.