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Can AI Recycling Robots Solve the Waste Crisis?

Posted on October 13, 2023October 13, 2023 by dishanth

Our global waste crisis is enormous, with billions of tons of trash generated each year, and much of it ending up in landfills instead of being recycled. A major reason recycling rates remain low is actually the extreme difficulty of efficiently sorting and separating the complex jumble of materials in our waste streams. But what if AI recycling robots could take over this dull, dirty, and dangerous work from human sorters? That’s the ambitious vision of EverestLabs, a startup aiming to totally transform recycling as we know it.

AI Recycling Robots Faster, Smarter

EverestLabs was founded in 2020 by a team of engineers and technologists from Apple, Google, NVIDIA, and other leading tech companies. They’re on a mission to bring the power of artificial intelligence, computer vision, and advanced robotics to tackle the massive challenges facing global recycling efforts. Imagine conveyor belts loaded with trash of all types, with sophisticated robotic arms directed by AI rapidly grabbing items and precisely sorting them into different bins for recycling.

RecycleOS is an AI recycling robot operating system for recycling plants that uses vision technology, robotics, and data analytics to improve the efficiency and accuracy of recycling. It uses 3D depth-sensing cameras to identify recyclable materials like plastics, metals, and paper. The system then uses robotic arms to sort the materials into different bins. RecycleOS also uses data analytics to track the system’s performance and identify improvement areas.

RecycleOS is designed to be more efficient and accurate than traditional manual sorting methods. It is being used in a variety of places, including recycling centers, manufacturing plants, and retail stores. The company has also partnered with a number of major companies, such as Coca-Cola and Procter & Gamble, to deploy AI recycling robots.

Coca-Cola: EverestLabs and Coca-Cola have partnered to deploy RecycleOS at a number of Coca-Cola bottling plants in the United States. The goal of the partnership is to improve the efficiency and accuracy of recycling at Coca-Cola’s plants.
Procter & Gamble: EverestLabs and Procter & Gamble have partnered to deploy RecycleOS at a number of Procter & Gamble manufacturing plants in the United States. The partnership aims to improve the efficiency and accuracy of recycling at Procter & Gamble’s plants.

In addition to Coca-Cola and Procter & Gamble, EverestLabs has also partnered with a number of other major companies, including:

PepsiCo
Kraft Heinz
Walmart
Target
Unilever

It may sound futuristic, but EverestLabs AI recycling robots are already built and working. As prototypes, they can sort the waste at speeds no human worker could match. The AI recycling robot system can consistently achieve over 90% accuracy across dozens of material categories like plastics, paper, electronics, and metals. That leads to much purer recycled material streams that retain their value.

Potentially Huge Business Scale

EverestLabs is running pilot projects with major waste haulers and recyclers to prove the AI recycling robot solution. They’ve also raised $16 million in venture funding to hire engineers and scientists across AI, computer vision, and robotics disciplines to turn the technology into commercial-ready products. The founders envision their automated recycling concept eventually operating 24/7 at massive scales, processing waste volumes human sorters could never handle.

Adoption faces challenges, from high upfront costs to reluctance by old-school waste companies to change. But the sheer size of the opportunity makes EverestLabs hard to ignore. The environmental payoffs would be enormous if advanced intelligent automation could boost global recycling rates and economics. Untold millions of tons of usable materials could be recovered rather than dumped or incinerated.

As urbanization intensifies globally, solving the waste crisis is increasingly urgent. EverestLabs and other startups applying cutting-edge tech see huge potential for robots and AI algorithms to handle the waste sorting that humans simply cannot physically achieve. Autonomous recycling may even protect thousands of vulnerable workers from hazardous manual labor. The future remains uncertain, but companies like EverestLabs show how emerging technologies could positively disrupt even our most entrenched industrial systems.

Source Happy Eco News

4D-Printed Seeds That Can Study the Soil

Posted on May 19, 2023May 25, 2023 by dishanth

Soil plays an important role in keeping our planet healthy. Soil filters our water, provides plants with nutrients, and provides a home for billions of organisms. Moreover, the soil is an important ingredient for growing food, and it protects us against flooding and combats drought. Because soil is made in part of broken down plant matter, they contain a lot of carbon that the plants took in from the atmosphere. The capacity of carbon that soil can hold depends on climate, temperature, rainfall, soil type and depth.

Soil is under threat due to rising temperatures and biodiversity loss due to climate change. Half of the topsoil in the world has been lost in the last 150 years due to erosion. These impacts include compaction, loss of soil structure, nutrient degradation and soil salinity. Soil nutrient loss is recognized as among the most critical problems at a global level for food security and sustainability.

Because many of the effects of climate change on soil happen underground, it can be difficult to study the impacts. Scientists from the Bioinspired Soft Robotics Lab in Genoa, Italy, have developed a solution to this problem. They have designed the first 4D-printed seed-inspired soft robot. The robotic seed mimics the movement and performance of a natural seed. The seed is said to help act as a sensor for monitoring pollutants, CO2 levels, temperature and humidity in the soil.

The structure of the South African geranium inspires the artificial seed. The seeds can change shape in response to how humid their environment is. The seed can autonomously move around a terrain surface and penetrate the soil. Here, the seed can explore the soil and penetrate inside fractures, extracting energy from the environmental humidity changes. The seeds can find a home for themselves by expanding and shrinking due to changes in the water content of the air.

The seed was created using 4D printed structures as they can create dynamic morphological changes under environmental stimuli. Additionally, these structures can be programmed to reshape and perform work for any type of scenario. The seed is also strong enough to lift about 100 times its own weight. The seeds are made out of biodegradable polymers, which are activated using oxygen plasma to increase water-attracting abilities. The scientists chose these materials because they absorb and expand when exposed to humidity.

This invention could be a battery-free wireless tool for environmental topsoil monitoring. It could be a low-cost system to collect soil data across remote areas without monitoring data. It is also a relatively non-invasive way to study and monitor the soil. And the role of biodegradable materials and eco-friendly processing is fundamental for sustainable and green robotics to avoid the dispersal of new waste in natural environments. This study could be an inspiration for other researchers looking to study hard-to-reach areas that are at risk due to climate change.

Source Eco Hero News

TECH Hyundai plans $5 billion investment in U.S. on mobility technology

Posted on May 23, 2022 by dishanth

KEY POINTS

Hyundai Motor announced on Sunday that it plans to spend $5 billion in the U.S. on developing mobility solutions such as autonomous driving and robotics.
Last week, Hyundai said it would spend $5.54 billion to build its first dedicated electric vehicle and battery manufacturing facilities in the U.S.
The investment is part of a larger push by Hyundai to advance mobility electrification more broadly.

Hyundai Motor said on Sunday it plans to invest $5 billion in the U.S. by 2025 to further develop mobility technologies in areas like autonomous driving, robotics, and A.I.

The investment comes alongside the automaker’s recent announcement of a plan to spend $5.54 billion to build its first dedicated electric vehicle and battery manufacturing facilities in the U.S., located outside of Savannah, Georgia. That facility is expected to open during the first half of 2025 and is projected to have an annual production capacity of 300,000 vehicles.

Some $10 billion of new investment will be used to further Hyundai’s “goal to provide sustainable and smart mobility solutions,” the company said.

Hyundai is aiming to be one of the top three electric vehicle providers in the U.S. by 2026 and is one of several global automakers establishing new supply chains and production facilities in America to take advantage of what is expected to be a decade ahead of exponential growth for the category.

The company had previously announced a plan to sell 3.23 million fully electric vehicles worldwide annually by 2030.

It also dovetails with a push from the Biden administration to have companies set up electric vehicle supply chains in the U.S. as opposed to overseas. The administration announced a $3.1 billion plan earlier this month to boost the domestic manufacturing of batteries, which followed the president invoking the Defense Production Act in April to encourage domestic production of minerals that are required to make electric vehicle batteries. The White House has set a goal of 50% electric vehicle sales by 2030.

This newly announced investment from Hyundai will allow it to strengthen its partnership with “U.S. public and private entities to offer innovative products and mobility solutions to our valued customers in the U.S. while supporting global carbon neutrality efforts,” Euisun Chung, executive chair of Hyundai Motor, said in a statement.

That will include areas like robotics, advanced air mobility, artificial intelligence, and autonomous driving, the company said.

Hyundai Motor bought an 80% stake in robot maker Boston Dynamics from Softbank in December 2020, The company, known for its four-legged dog-like robot Spot, was valued at $1.1 billion. Boston Dynamics, which was previously financed by Google, started selling its first robot commercially in June 2020.

The automaker is also pushing into driverless technology through Motional, a venture formed with U.S.-based mobile technology company Aptive. Motional is currently testing its robotaxi service on U.S. public roads and intends to start offering commercial service in 2023, one of several efforts to bring autonomous vehicles to roads across the country.

In November, Hyundai formed Supernal, which is aiming to develop a family of electric air vehicles in the burgeoning advanced air mobility industry. The company said it plans to launch its first commercial flight in 2028.

Source CNBC