Have This Funny Japanese Robot Excrete You An Igloo

If you're currently living somewhere snowy (especially you, northeastern United States...stay safe), you might be having a difficult day thanks to weather-related logistics.  Namely, how crazy it is trying to navigate large amounts of snow when they suddenly appear in your roads and driveways.

Japan (of course) has invented a strange but useful vehicle to handle this problem in an efficient manner.  According to inventorspot.com, the Yuki-taro robot uses GPS and cameras to self-navigate as a cute little snowplow.  Designed to help Japan's elderly so that they don't become shut-ins during snowstorms, Yuki-taro is currently a prototype that will eventually be sold for some 1 million yen ($9000) apiece to aid municipalities.

This is the future.  Don't laugh, Yuki-taro will neatly stack snow even after nuclear winter.
(Image courtesy robomaniac.com.)

The self-guided snowplowing isn't the best part, though.  Yuki-taro, um, "creates" bricks of snow as it works, allowing for neatly piled excretions to be used for homemade igloos or stashable summer cooling elements.  Yes, Yuki-taro basically rolls around town looking cute and pooping out snow-bricks.  Your snowfort will have some serious architectural support with Yuki-taro around.

And yes, since it's Japan, they might even make them look like Pokemon or Hello Kitty.  Next up:  Cthulu-tentacled lawn sprinkler?

Well, at least you don't have to shovel.
(Image courtesy japaoemfoco.com.)