FINLAND: Finnish waste management company is currently testing a recycling robot that can identify recyclables among other garbage

Record ID: 401793

  • Title: FINLAND: Finnish waste management company is currently testing a recycling robot that can identify recyclables among other garbage
  • Date: 21st June 2011
  • Summary: HELSINKI, FINLAND (RECENT) (REUTERS) SITA'S RECYCLING FACILITY GARBAGE EXCAVATOR LIFTING METAL GARBAGE EXCAVATOR SORTING MIXED WASTE EXCAVATOR ARM SMASHING METAL WASTE A MAN SORTING WOOD FOR RECYCLING COMPUTER SCREEN OF SMART ROBOT CONTROL CENTRE ZENROBOTICS INTELLIGENT GARBAGE SELECTING ROBOT IN LAB HARRI VALPOLA , Ph.D. CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER (CTO), ZENROBOTICS
  • Embargoed: 6th July 2011 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Finland, Finland
  • Country: Finland
  • Topics: Nature / Environment,Quirky,Science
  • Reuters ID: LVA3N30M5FHXTJ4NHKJX0IEKBQMM
  • Story Text: A Finnish company says its intelligent recycling robot correctly identified and sorted half of the recyclable material it was fed during tests at a construction site.
    Helsinki-based ZenRobotics says the robot is able to identify metals, concrete, wood and certain types of plastics.
    The system removes valuable raw materials and inert materials during the process which is something that cannot be done in the mechanical processes currently in use said Harri Valpola who is the Chief Technology Officer at ZenRobotics.
    "Currently waste is being sorted by all kinds of mechanical means, drums, screens and this kind of technology can not handle the type of waste the robots can do," he said.
    According to the company, the robot uses data from a combination of visual sensors, metal detectors, weight measurements and tactile feedback from a robotic arm to pick out pieces of refuse from a mound of debris and sort them.
    Valpola said the robotic system had been assembled with off-the-shelf industrial robotics components.
    "Our robot has been built using standard industrial robots, there is nothing special in the robots themselves, the specialty is in the brain of the robot. Normally robots can not distinguish shapes and react differently for different kinds of shapes as this one," he said.
    At the test site near Helsinki, where recycling and waste management company SITA manages construction waste, the robot is stationed by a conveyor belt where the materials are loaded. As the material goes by, the robot picks it up, analyses it and if the robot identifies the type, places it in the appropriate bin.
    If a material is not recognised by the robot, it stays on the belt andup being discarded.
    The sensors used by the robot include cameras to detect normal light as well as spectrometers, 3D laser scanners and touch sensors. Spectrometer analysis helps the robot to recognize odd shaped waste such as a piece of wood with nails in it.
    Also, different objects reflect unique patterns of light so the robot can distinguish the type of waste based on its colour.
    ZenRobotics says the mechanism is simple enough to add new measuring devices as they become available, improving the robot's range.
    CEO of SITA Finland, Jorma Kangas, says he hopes that the robot can greatly increase the amount of materials being recycled rather than disposed of.
    "At the moment we receive about fifty tons of construction waste into our site and most of it is being taken to further treatment elsewhere but we hope to improve our recovery so that about 75 to 80 per cent is being taken to material recycling," he said.
    In addition, it is likely waste management companies will save money as the robot makes labour intensive manual sorting unnecessary.
    The company says it already has orders for the robot even though it is still in the testing phase.
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