An Italian scooter maker invents a robot that follows you around carrying your stuff

Inside an industrial building in Somerville, Massachusetts, I'm watching a robot follow someone around like an eager puppy. The light-blue robot, called Gita, is almost spherical, with two wheels about the size of those you'd find on a mountain bike. A nearby laptop shows the world as perceived by the robot: a "point-cloud" of dots representing the 3-D shape of the room and the hallway outside, generated using a series of cameras attached to the bot's body. Gita was developed by Piaggio, an Italian automotive company that makes various lightweight vehicles but is most famous for making the iconic Vespa scooter. The robot is an experimental new way of transporting stuff.