Student Thomas James wanted to help his elderly neighbour, so he invented a wheelie bin robot to take her large recycling bin to the kerb.

Burnside High School student Thomas James wanted to help his elderly neighbour, so he invented a wheelie bin robot to take her large recycling bin to the kerb.

The invention has won him the 2019 Prime Minister's Future Scientist Prize.

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Thomas used lego models for his first prototype before learning about micro-processors, programming, autonomous navigation and sourcing the many intricate components he needed to build a full-size self-navigating robot.

His nominator says he is a very talented engineer who's developed and produced a system that adult technologists would struggle to design and make.

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Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details