Ferrovial Services, via the Centre of Excellence for Environment and the Ecoparc 4 Waste Treatment Plant in Barcelona, has installed the first robot equipped with artificial intelligence that is capable of driving up collection of recoverable waste materials at treatment plants.
Artificial Intelligence Robot drives amount of recoverable materials reclaimed
The Wall-B robot, owned by the company Sadako Technologies, is currently in the operational fine-tuning stage and should become fully functional in early 2016. This technology consists of an industrial robotic arm equipped with a material collection system and combining machine vision with advanced robotic technology. The system thus gathers recoverable materials from the different kinds of plastics moving down the processing line. The robot is designed to work on lines with low and medium waste streams (between 100 and 500 tons annually). Wall-B will drive up material recovery levels at the facility for a profitable cost.
This video demonstrates how the Wall-B robot works:
A leader in materials recovery
What’s new about this technology is that it automates tasks currently performed by operators. As a result, Ecoparc 4 is initially and in a fully automated fashion expected to annually recover more than 125 tons of PET plastics (polyethylene terephthalate). Recovering said material, which has a very high market value, will generate revenue in excess of 50 thousand euros each year. In subsequent development stages, Wall-B will be programmed to select other types of materials, such as HDPE (high density polyethylene), bricks and others.
About Sadako Technologies
Sadako Technologies is an innovative startup that after just three years has managed to establish a foothold in the waste treatment market via its Wall-B technology. The project has been recognised by Ecoembes as the “Best Innovation and Entrepreneurship Project” of 2015.
