Some time in the past 7 years, I saw a (possibly student) film on youtube about a scrap metal robot (The film itself may be older, but that is the timeframe in which I saw it).
I will attempt to recount what I can remember about the plot, including some specific details about the world setting and art style:
Protagonist:
A small dog-sized robot made of scrap metal whose original function was to tidy up its master's house while he was out. Quite similar to wall-e in terms of size and character, the most striking characteristic is that it has a pair of very human-like eyeballs on stalks and it conveys itself on either wheels or a catterpillar tread
Setting:
Is a post-apocalyptic industrial wasteland, heavily implied that the air is unsafe to breathe due to pollution, quite desert-like. The main character and its owner live in a dark, squalid apartment building with other humans but it is quite obvious that society is extremely diminished.
Plot:
The owner, who is some sort of robot repairman or tinkerer, finds a component on the side of the road which has fallen out of a delivery truck. He installs this into the main character (the cleaner robot) which gradually causes it to gain self-awareness. This character development culminates with the little robot looking wistfully out of the apartment window at another mysterious skyscraper in the distance. I distinctly remember a poignant moment where the robot observes a sunrise with its strikingly human eyes.
One day, the robot decides to leave the apartment and travel to the skyscraper. From what I remember, it is guarded by people riding on flying motorbikes (or possibly powered gliders) and dressed similarly to the tuskan raiders from star wars episode IV
When inside, the robot makes its way to a control room where a group of scientists can be found working on a large machine. The plot culminates here with the revelation that the component which was found by the side of the road in act 1 is something they need for their machine, and it was ordered to arrive the day before society collapsed.
Ending:
The robot sacrifices itself so that the scientists can fix the machine, which is an air purifier that removes the deadly fog from the world.
Other
Please do not take what is written in this section as fact, these are the areas in which I am least confident with my remembrance
It is quite darkly lit and possibly shot on VHS or at least attempting to mimic the VHS 'effect'. I believe this was filmed using stop motion photography, and that all the characters were stop motion models or very cleverly disguised human actors but I do not think it was animated either in 2D or 3D.
There is very little dialogue in the film itself and the main character is essentially a silent protagonist.
