{"id":14865,"date":"2019-11-28T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-11-28T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.engineernewsnetwork.com\/blog\/?p=14865"},"modified":"2019-11-27T15:45:51","modified_gmt":"2019-11-27T15:45:51","slug":"can-robots-help-us-recycle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.engineernewsnetwork.com\/blog\/can-robots-help-us-recycle\/","title":{"rendered":"Robots recover recyclable materials"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

An innovative robotic solutions sorts through waste to spot and recover recyclable materials.\u00a0 Sophie Hand explains how<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to a World Bank\u2019s 2018<\/a><\/strong> report, global waste is expected to increase by 70% by 2050 unless urgent action is taken.\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even when citizens separate their trash correctly, the quantity of recyclables that are actually repurposed is marginal compared with the amount of those that end up in landfills.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Raise your hand if you\u2019ve never stood in the kitchen with a plastic can or a Tetra Pack container in your hand, trying to decide which bin it belongs to.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite out best intentions, consumer confusion on what can or cannot be recycled contributes in increasing the amount of recyclables that could be recuperated, but instead are discharged in our already overflowing landfills.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even when consumers make the right choice, the single-stream recycling system adopted in the US and the UK, which allows citizens to throw all recyclables into one container, has disastrous consequences. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the one hand, the convenience of this system means that most citizens do recycle; on the other, sorting tons of commingled trash is an expensive, time consuming and often ineffective process. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact, the collected material is often too rich in contaminants to be effectively processed, and is either returned to landfills, or burned for energy production.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

New hope from AI<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The gap between what\u2019s collected and what\u2019s recycled has led to huge investments in automated solutions that use AI and machine learning to separate mixed recyclables at waste treatment plants. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The goal of these technologies is threefold \u2013 to improve the quality and purity of shipped secondary commodities, to decrease the cost of labour, and to increase safety for human workers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Norwegian multinational corporation TOMRA, Finnish robotics giant ZenRobotics and Canadian sorting specialist Machinex are all enterprises committed to providing bespoke sensor-based solutions to the recycling industry. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

All these companies offer robotic arms that use computer vision systems, spectroscopic cameras and data supplied from sensors to separate items on a conveyor belt based on their perceive size, shape, colour and conductivity level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These solutions proved to be at least double as fast as a human worker and equally accurate in recognising different materials. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For example, an optical sorter produced by Machinex can sort recyclables at up to 3,000 objects per minute, while the average of a human worker is 800.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Touching the future<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another promising solution has been developed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology\u2019s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL), which recently unveiled its experimental RoCycle system. This uses soft Teflon grippers with \u2018fingertip\u2019 sensors that imitate the sense of touch, allowing the robotic arm to separate objects by size, conductivity and stiffness. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thanks to its tactile sensors, RoCycle can distinguish metal objects from objects that simply look like metals, since it can sense their rigidity and conductivity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the moment, RoCycle is much slower than a human worker and not very accurate on moving targets. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, its developers are planning to improve its accuracy and dexterity by combining the tactile data with visual data from cameras. This would allow the robot to become the closest possible alternative to a human worker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The human angle<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Currently, human operators are still needed to dispose of what machines fail to recognise, since misidentified items can not only contaminate the purity of recyclable material, but also ruin expensive equipment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For example, overlooked metal or glass objects can sneak in a paper-processing spinning machine and damage it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, it\u2019s extremely difficult to find and retain a workforce for this job, since manually sorting trash is a monotonous, unpleasant and often hazardous task. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a consequence, waste treatment plants report that many employees quit within hours. AI-based solutions would allow plant managers to reassign their employees to more qualified and rewarding positions, while robots would take care or the most menial and dangerous tasks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even the most sophisticated technologies for waste treatment can break and necessitate spare parts. If that is the case,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sophie Hand is UK country manager at automation parts supplier EU Automation<\/a><\/strong>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An innovative robotic solutions sorts through waste to spot and recover recyclable materials.\u00a0 Sophie Hand explains how According to a World Bank\u2019s 2018 report, global waste is expected to increase by 70% by 2050 unless urgent action is taken.\u00a0 Even when citizens separate their trash correctly, the quantity of recyclables that are actually repurposed is …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[105,1],"tags":[48,50,52,3800,7524],"class_list":["post-14865","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","","category-design","category-process","tag-automation","tag-eu-automation","tag-robots","tag-waste","tag-waste-management-plants"],"yoast_head":"\nRobots recover recyclable materials - Engineer News Network<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"An innovative robotic solutions sorts through waste to spot and recover recyclable materials. 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