Coventry-based Fanuc UK, one of the world’s largest robotics manufacturers, is breaking into the waste management industry by partnering with intelligent waste management start-up Recycleye.

Over the past 12 the months, Recycleye has combined its validated artificial intelligence (AI) computer vision technology with Fanuc’s 60-plus years of experience in automation, to deploy and scale Recycleye Robotics, an AI-powered robotic waste-picking system.

To date, the limited availability of scalable recognition technologies has pushed the waste management industry towards a reliance on manual waste pickers to identify and extract high-value materials.

However, in recent years the economic efficiency of manual sorting has been challenged due to increased stringency in international quality standards on the purity of imported recycled waste. As such, the demand for an affordable automated sorting solution to ensure purity standards are met, is rising. Together, Fanuc and Recycleye have addressed that demand to deliver intelligent automation to the industry.

Material recovery facilities have been automating waste sorting through the installation of robotic waste pickers. Although automated pickers have improved the rate and quality of recovered waste, existing systems carry high capital and retrofit costs, preventing many recycling facilities from fully automating their waste sorting operations. Without automated sorting in all material recovery facilities, the UK’s recycling rates will continue to decline.

Affordable automationRecycleye Robotics performs the physical tasks of identifying, picking and placing material, at a rate of 55 picks per min. The novel solution automates current manual operations and enables facilities to double their total throughput.

Fanuc’s team of expert automation engineers designed Recycleye Robotics to weigh 75% less than any existing robotic waste picker currently on the market. The ‘plug-and-play’ installation eliminates traditional expensive retrofit costs.

Oliver Selby, Fanuc UK robotics business development manager, said:: “As a provider of unrivalled electric injection moulding solutions, Fanuc acknowledges that increasing the use of recyclates available for the manufacturing of new plastic products is a priority for the development of a circular economy. By integrating Recycleye’s robotic picker into its repertoire, Fanuc can be proud to be delivering affordable automation to the recycling industry.”

Recycleye Robotics is powered by Recycleye Vision, an artificial intelligence (AI) vision system, which has been rolled out across the UK and French markets, exceeding human vision in identifying and classifying all items on waste streams – by material, object and even brand.

Recycleye Vision is designed to constantly train and learn new object detection, enabling for the robotic waste picking system to adapt to changing waste composition without any need for manual upgrades.

Yann Glauser, Recycleye lead hardware engineer, said: “Recycleye’s intelligent robotic picker is creating long-term value for our clients, working consistently to increase throughput and reduce the cost of recycling. Our partnership with Fanuc is leveraging world-leading expertise in robotic solutions to develop the most-effective automated solution for waste sorting.”

The modular robotic picking system has already been deployed at two UK material recovery facilities, on multiple plastic and paper sorting lines, and deployments in France are scheduled to begin later this year.

Having installed over 700,000 robots worldwide in different markets, Fanuc will now use its expertise to help lead the global roll-out of the Recycleye robotic pickers. Recycleye and Fanuc’s intelligent robotic system is creating a new wave of intelligent and affordable automation in the waste management industry.