Hey Lisa! You ROCK!
Thanks for your comments which are much appreciated. It seems that the fingers are not "gelling" with everyone's tastes. I am happy with them but I wish I had time to work the concept a bit more (I like Pure's pincer idea).

Here is the Run down to date... The funny thing is, while I was thinking about it last night, I remembered that the arms unfolding is a secondary action.
The Robot spends the majority of it's time flying with the arms tucked up underneath it (refer to the original concept sketches) - The arms fold out to remove bits of rubbish etc in it's way. The actual chewing gum is not picked up or touched due to it's sticky nature. It is vapourised by a little ionising beam that pulses out from underneath the unit ( i will show detail later.) I thought a low powered pulse from the beam would also discourage birds, cats and other predators that might see the little fella as a meal. As well as a well timed prick from the beam would discourage Hoons and Surfer guys from trying to catch and tamper with it.

Any more comments or suggestions that might help are most welcome.