In the recycling industry, waste materials are typically crushed and torn into tiny pieces to make them easier to sort. The mixture is then dumped into a pool where wood and plastic float, and metal and rock sink.  Salvage robots like those made by Zen Robotics in Helsinki, Finland, are making this process obsolete. The robots can spot items of value – like pieces of hardwood or copper – and pick them out as they pass by. This is quicker and larger items may be worth more whole than in pieces. In two years, Zen Robotics installed its robots at 14 sites around the world and collected 4200 tonnes of valuable material.

Apple has developed a phone recycling robot called Liam, which can pull apart a discarded phone in seconds, preparing the device for recycling. Zen Robotics wants a “Liam” for all kinds of waste, but this is too hard to program by hand.

Enter  machine learning, where robots can teach themselves and acquire the ability to monitor their own performance, adjusting their behaviour accordingly. The idea is that faced with a conveyor belt of unfamiliar electrical items, say, the robots might do a poor job of taking them apart to extract the copper initially, but through trial and error they would learn to complete the task efficiently without human intervention.

The robot drops salvaged items on to a second conveyor belt. Overhead cameras monitor what the robot has grabbed and essentially grade its performance. Each success and failure is used to tweak the algorithm controlling the robot, improving its performance over time.  Once the machine learning system is in place, the robots can be given more advanced hardware. With a flexible arm they could learn to sort and dismantle trash far more effectively.  (reported in the New Scientist)

Now this is automation that really benefits the planet.  My wife and I visited a recycling plant some years ago.  It was very labour- intensive.  Human beings stood next to a conveyor belt all day, sorting the trash by hand.  It seemed an incredibly boring and smelly job I wouldn’t want to do myself.   Roll on machine sorting.