Artificial intelligence proves to be affecting everything the light touches as the robotics firm Glacier has reportedly introduced AI-powered robot capabilities in waste management.
The robots can reportedly automate recycling and waste management through unprecedented speeds, high-precision waste assortment, and waste identification.
Co-founder of Glacier Rebecca Hu makes robots that assist recycling facilities in sorting and recycling materials. Recycling items had previously had to be sorted by hand, which took hours to complete.
Glacier has started utilizing AI cameras to improve robots' ability to recognize recyclable goods.
(Photo : Photo by EZEQUIEL BECERRA/AFP via Getty Images)A worker at Fortech company shows metals recycled from electric car batteries in Cartago, Costa Rica,on February 20, 2023. - The Fortech company in Costa Rica recycles lithium batteries from telephones, computers, electric cars, and other items to sell the resulting materials for constructing new batteries.
Hu compared teaching the robots to recognize materials to teaching toddlers how to distinguish between two objects. According to the creator, the robots can become fairly proficient at matching patterns if they are given 100, 1,000, or even a million samples of aluminum cans.
Glacier's robots are an essential tool because, according to Amazon, just 21 percent of home recyclables in the United States are recycled, frequently due to inadequate recycling infrastructure, even though the country processes nearly 70 million tons of recycling yearly.
Amazon recently invested in the robotics company as part of its continued efforts to help female entrepreneurs and climate tech startups.
AI to End Waste
Glacier's ultimate goal is to keep any valuable recyclable materials out of the ocean or landfills by developing a more effective recycling system.
Recycled materials are typically transferred to a Materials Recovery Facility (MRF), where valuable commodities, including paper, plastic, and metals that can be recycled into raw materials, are sorted by personnel and equipment.
However, after being collected, some products frequently seen in curbside recycling containers are thrown away as rubbish.
Other AI-Powered Recycling Efforts
Glacier, however, is not the lone robotics firm in the AI recycling industry. Mikela Druckman, the creator of Greyparrot, a company based in the UK, has also used AI in recycling and waste analysis.
Using cameras above conveyor belts at 50 European recycling and waste management facilities, "Greyparrot's" artificial intelligence (AI) system analyzes the composition of waste in real-time.
Even with recent advancements, Druckman highlights the challenge of properly teaching AI systems to recognize and classify junk. AI has a difficult time working with a crumpled, dirty Coke bottle. Modern technology used by "Greyparrot" tracks 32 billion waste items annually, generating a large digital waste map.
Druckman emphasizes how inefficient resource recovery results in wasteful consumption, which is how waste management and climate change are related.
She thinks big companies and manufacturers will use data from "Greyparrot" to make more recyclable products, encourage the circular economy, and reduce waste.
Open Ocean Engineering, a Hong Kong business, also developed Clearbot Neo, an AI-enabled robotic boat, to reduce ocean plastic trash.
By collecting floating rubbish in major harbors, these elegant, self-governing robots stop tons of waste from entering the Pacific.
Clearbot Neo's designers aim to expand their business to the point where they can maintain and clean up rivers with global fleets of robots.
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