There have been many innovative, and usually useful, robotic inventions in the past decades. Maybe you have an automated vacuum cleaner that sucks up all the dust without moving a finger. Or perhaps you have a robotic dog that barks randomly at you so that you don't feel so alone at home.

Whatever you can think, there's most likely a motorized creation of it somewhere in the world. Useful or not.

Now, a new motorized invention has hit the pavements, and it's a useful one — in theory.

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A smart trash can

If you thought your motorized vacuum cleaner was a smart household tool, think again. Now your trash can wheel itself to the curb on trash day.

You read that right, a motorized trash can!

No more forgetting trash day and having to wait a few more days for your trash to smell like a concocted cesspool of fermented foods.

Curbside docking station. Source: SmartCan

The intelligent and motorized invention is aptly named the SmartCan, and once programmed, will move to its assigned spot on the right day, at the right time.

Created by Andrew Murray, founder, and CEO of Rezzi, SmartCan is his first invention.

Murray was looking to remove a weekly chore out of people's lives, one that most people don't take a huge amount of pleasure in doing.

It operates as simply as it sounds. You link up your SmartCan to the companion app, create a pre-programmed schedule that informs the trash can which days and times it needs to wheel itself out to the roadside, and then it returns itself to its allocated spot by your house when it's done. Simple as that.

All you need to add are two docking stations, one where the trash can resides, and one on the curbside of the road where the sanitation workers pick up the trash.

Companion app. Source: SmartCan

It's still simple, but there are a few issues.

What could go wrong?

What if the garbage pick-up workers don't drop the trash can precisely in front of its docking station when they're done? The trash can won't be able to wheel itself back to its 'resting' spot.

What if your city won't allow you to place a permanent docking station out on the side of the street?

What if something gets in the way of the automated path the trash can is meant to follow?

Home docking station. Source: SmartCan

What if your trash can loses power mid-way to the curb, won't it remain exactly where it is?

And how much does it cost? Murray has yet to disclose the cost of his invention.

There are still a few questions to be answered, however; and if these can adequately be addressed, then the SmartCan is a smart, and useful, invention.