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A high schooler built this adorable real-life WALL-E made out of garbage

Leanna Garfield

2015-12-17T21:47:00Z

RTX1Y6M8 — Esteban Quispe with his WALL-E. REUTERS/David Mercado

One man's trash is apparently this teen's robot.

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17-year-old Esteban Quispe built a WALL-E replica using garbage from a landfill near his hometown in Bolivia.

The working model looks just like the Disney character.

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Quispe made his robot completely from recycled garbage. It's fitting for WALL-E, who worked tirelessly to tidy up the planet in the film of the same name. "Fantasy is the key to creativity," Quispe told AJ+.

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Source: Al Jazeera

Quispe first ventured to a trash dump in Patacamaya, a small Bolivian town in the Andean highland region. He gathered metal, screws, and rubber to build the robot.

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The high schooler then went home to his makeshift lab to build and program WALL-E.

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After he tinkered with the aluminum body and rubber wheels, the robot's eyes lit up and WALL-E turned on.

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Quispe programmed WALL-E to wheel around on its own. It can detect and avoid small obstacles, like rocks and uneven paths.

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He also created a smartphone app that remotely controls the robot, which can pick up small crops and rotate its arms and head.

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Self-taught and passionate about robotics, Quispe started working on computers at age 10 with his father and brother.

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In the future, he wants to build solar-powered robots that can perform simple farm tasks in his community. "Most of the indigenous people are moving to cities," he said. "Who is going to work? That's why I will create robots."

RTX1Y6M8 — Esteban Quispe with his WALL-E. REUTERS/David Mercado

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Quispe already received a college scholarship to build agriculture robots.

RTX1Y6QE — Quispe and his mother. REUTERS/David Mercado

"I want my robots to do something special to protect the environment," Quispe said. "My robots would not use batteries. Light would give them the energy they need."

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