We won't lie – ever since Johnny 5 came alive we've come to love robots. But every so often one comes along and creeps the living bejesus out of us.

Take for instance this self-walking shopping cart. It's not so much the automation of the cart that's chilling, but the set of flaming, disembodied legs that propel the thing. According to its creator, the local homeless community served as inspiration:

"Carlos was a college kinetic sculpture project. I was interested in the concept of automating aspects of society that were considered not so 'glamorous' . . . For example, homeless people live in extremely dangerous environments. Shouldn't there be automated equipment used by this strata of society?"

You can check out the hobo-bot in action the video above. For a look at how it was pieced together, hit the link below.

[GizmoGarden via MAKE]