2025 Expo Osaka: Expo Utilizes Latest Technologies to Keep Venue Clean; Autonomous Trash Can Robots Tidy Up Site

By Ayaka Yamane and Jo Ishibuchi / Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writers

1:00 JST, May 1, 2025

OSAKA — A system utilizing a smartphone app to identify trash and dirty areas and then swiftly clean up is being employed at the 2025 Osaka-Kansai Expo in Konohana Ward, Osaka. Autonomous trash can robots have also been introduced, helping to enhance the image of the Expo.

Even though the venue covers about 155 hectares, visitors are said to have praised the site for its cleanliness. Mike McKee, 62, from the United States, said the venue is very clean and he thinks that reflects Japanese culture.

Five companies, including Duskin Co. in Suita, Osaka Prefecture, which are responsible for keeping the venue clean, use a special app equipped with the functions of a global positioning system to manage the efforts by individual areas. After a patrol team tours the venue and registers locations where there is trash or that are dirty along with photos on the app, cleaning team leaders send staff to clean the areas. Both areas that have been cleaned and those that have not are shown on the app.

“Since the Expo’s theme is ‘People’s Living Lab,’ we also incorporated digital technology into cleaning,” said Duskin official Atsushi Matsuyama. “We will continue to work to ensure that visitors find every corner of the venue clean.”

Trash can robots also work on the walking path of the Grand Ring, a 2-kilometer-long and 20-meter-high wooden structure at the venue. The box-shaped robots, which are 1.3 meters long and 1.2 meters high, move at a speed slower than a person’s natural walking pace.

The robots have openings on the sides for sorting and collecting burnable and other trash.

The robots move autonomously thanks to a 3D map and GPS. Built-in sensors and cameras monitor the surrounding environment to prevent collisions.

The robots go around the ring once or twice a day from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. from Wednesday to Friday.

“They are kind of cute. It’s interesting that you do not go to trash cans to discard things but they come near you,” said Satomi Hashimoto, 49, a company employee from Higashiosaka, Osaka Prefecture.

Tokyo-based Mitsubishi Electric Corp., which developed the robots, plans to analyze the results of the test at the Expo to use them for wider purposes, including transporting luggage or displaying advertisements at event venues and resort areas.