Robolution | Robotic Recycling Revolution

Summary
The increasing scarcity for raw materials, growingly strict regulations (European Waste Directive & Landfill tax escalation) and social pressure have turned waste into a resource, making recycling highly attractive. This has created a major market opportunity for new technologies that achieve high purity of sorted materials at a low cost.

ZenRobotics Oy has developed a robotic waste sorting system ZenRobotics Recycler (ZRR) that has the potential to revolutionise waste sorting, replacing low-performing hazardous manual jobs with highly efficient and fast autonomous robotic pickers. The key innovation of ZRR is a unique machine-learning based system, which gathers gigabytes of data of its environment, makes smart decisions and moves a robot arm in an unpredictable environment. Given the novelty of the technology, a paradigm shift is necessary in waste management for wide uptake of ZRR.

The Robolution project develops the prototype ZRR into a reliable and commercially attractive system for sorting Commercial and Industrial waste that forms more that 25% of total waste stream. The project focuses on:
• Robot motion control to be able sort faster smaller objects and pick larger and heavier objects.
• Recognition to detect new fractions (plastics, ferrous/non-ferrous metals) with 95% purity and recovery.
• Development of the reporting tool enabling optimization within a waste sorting plant.
• Optimization of the ZRR commissioning and service to shorten time-to-market time.
• Testing and demonstration of the new functionality in real life conditions.

ZenRobotics targets the global waste sorting equipment market currently worth about €1.5-3 billion annually, but thanks to technological advances, the market is likely to explode. The expected annual turnover of the Commercial and Industrial waste ZRR reaches €150 million by 2021.
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More information & hyperlinks
Web resources: https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/673690
Start date: 01-07-2015
End date: 31-12-2016
Total budget - Public funding: 2 023 750,00 Euro - 1 416 625,00 Euro
Cordis data

Original description

The increasing scarcity for raw materials, growingly strict regulations (European Waste Directive & Landfill tax escalation) and social pressure have turned waste into a resource, making recycling highly attractive. This has created a major market opportunity for new technologies that achieve high purity of sorted materials at a low cost.

ZenRobotics Oy has developed a robotic waste sorting system ZenRobotics Recycler (ZRR) that has the potential to revolutionise waste sorting, replacing low-performing hazardous manual jobs with highly efficient and fast autonomous robotic pickers. The key innovation of ZRR is a unique machine-learning based system, which gathers gigabytes of data of its environment, makes smart decisions and moves a robot arm in an unpredictable environment. Given the novelty of the technology, a paradigm shift is necessary in waste management for wide uptake of ZRR.

The Robolution project develops the prototype ZRR into a reliable and commercially attractive system for sorting Commercial and Industrial waste that forms more that 25% of total waste stream. The project focuses on:
• Robot motion control to be able sort faster smaller objects and pick larger and heavier objects.
• Recognition to detect new fractions (plastics, ferrous/non-ferrous metals) with 95% purity and recovery.
• Development of the reporting tool enabling optimization within a waste sorting plant.
• Optimization of the ZRR commissioning and service to shorten time-to-market time.
• Testing and demonstration of the new functionality in real life conditions.

ZenRobotics targets the global waste sorting equipment market currently worth about €1.5-3 billion annually, but thanks to technological advances, the market is likely to explode. The expected annual turnover of the Commercial and Industrial waste ZRR reaches €150 million by 2021.

Status

CLOSED

Call topic

SC5-20-2014

Update Date

27-10-2022
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Horizon 2020
H2020-EU.2. INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP
H2020-EU.2.3. INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Innovation In SMEs
H2020-EU.2.3.1. Mainstreaming SME support, especially through a dedicated instrument
H2020-SMEINST-2-2014
SC5-20-2014 Boosting the potential of small businesses for eco-innovation and a sustainable supply of raw materials
H2020-EU.3. SOCIETAL CHALLENGES
H2020-EU.3.5. SOCIETAL CHALLENGES - Climate action, Environment, Resource Efficiency and Raw Materials
H2020-EU.3.5.0. Cross-cutting call topics
H2020-SMEINST-2-2014
SC5-20-2014 Boosting the potential of small businesses for eco-innovation and a sustainable supply of raw materials