By Hina Dinoo
Her award-winning autonomous pet waste system, Pikapoo, was featured at Tortona Design Week as part of Milan Design Week 2025 under the theme “Design rEvolution: Creative Connections.”
Chinese product designer Yihan Luo recently presented her groundbreaking robotic system Pikapoo at the 2025 edition of Milan Design Week, the world’s most influential design event. Her project was exhibited within the Tortona Design Week district—one of the festival’s key venues—under the curatorial theme “Design rEvolution: Creative Connections.” The showcase highlighted innovative design responses to contemporary social and environmental challenges, and Luo’s project stood out for its integration of sustainable technology, user-centered design, and urban health awareness.
Held from April 7 to 13, 2025, Tortona Design Week transformed Milan’s Tortona district into a dynamic laboratory of creativity, innovation, and research. Under the theme “Design rEvolution: Creative Connections,” the event celebrated the power of connections in the design world, bringing together disciplines, ideas, and visions to create a week of discoveries and inspiration.
The district hosted a diverse array of exhibitions and installations, focusing on smart materials, sustainable infrastructures, and designs that engage the senses. International brands and designers converged to explore new perspectives on contemporary design, fostering a dialogue that merges aesthetics, technology, and functionality.
Conceived during China’s COVID-19 lockdown, Pikapoo emerged from Luo’s observations of widespread pet waste on neighborhood lawns and her user research into pet owner behaviors. Many respondents mistakenly believed that dog feces acted as natural fertilizer. In truth, dog waste contains bacteria harmful to vegetation and public health. Existing cleanup tools offered little innovation—often requiring direct contact and lacking eco-friendly disposal methods.
In response, Luo developed Pikapoo, an autonomous robotic pet waste management system that combines product design, interaction design, and service design. The system includes a mobile app-controlled robot (Poobot) that identifies and collects waste, and a companion unit (Poobase) that composts it into fertilizer using biological catalysts. The system also offers health diagnostics by analyzing samples, providing pet owners with medical insights via the app.
Following its debut as her graduation project, Pikapoo quickly garnered widespread attention. Luo collaborated with an engineer to further refine the design before submitting it to international competitions. The project won multiple honors, including the 2025 iF Design Award (Robotics), the IDA Design Award, and the 2025 French Design Award, recognizing both its functionality and environmental relevance. These accolades helped secure its selection for exhibition at Milan Design Week 2025—a key milestone in Luo’s early career.
At the Tortona venue, Pikapoo was exhibited alongside other future-facing solutions focused on urban sustainability and smart interaction. Visitors experienced a live demonstration of the robot’s capabilities, the composting cycle, and health reporting features, illustrating the full lifecycle of how waste can be transformed into insight and utility. The installation embodied Tortona’s mission to highlight “connected design” that merges aesthetics, responsibility, and technology.
About the Designer
Yihan Luo is an interaction and product designer known for her ability to merge sustainability, social impact, and emerging technologies. Educated at ArtCenter College of Design and the University of Southern California, Luo’s design philosophy is rooted in bridging physical systems with digital user experiences. Her work addresses overlooked problems—like uncollected dog waste—and reimagines them as opportunities for environmental and social innovation.
Her participation in Milan Design Week 2025 signals a growing international recognition of Chinese designers engaging with global issues through deeply considered, human-centered approaches. As she continues to develop solutions at the intersection of robotics, ecology, and user behavior, Luo is poised to become a leading voice in next-generation design thinking.
Wow, Yihan Luo’s Pikapoo sounds like a game-changer for pet owners! 🐶 How user-friendly is the app?
Does Pikapoo really work on all types of surfaces? I’m curious about its efficiency on gravel or sand.
Great innovation! But what happens if Pikapoo mistakenly picks up something that’s not waste? 🤔
The concept is amazing, but how affordable is the Pikapoo for average pet owners?
Is the composting process in Poobase truly eco-friendly? I’d love to know more about the biological catalysts used.
Finally, a solution that makes pet waste management easier! Thank you, Yihan Luo! 🙌