Publication
Sorting Bulky Waste with the Help of AI - the SmartRecycling Project
Thomas Vögele; Tim Tiedemann; Timo Lange; Philipp Meyer; Matthis Trost; Martin Wittmaier; Sebastian Wolff; Yuhan Jin; Yi-Ling Liu; Phillip Grote; Adrian Auer; Ajish Babu
In: Proceedings of the 7th International Symposium on Circular Economy and Urban Mining. International Symposium on Circular Economy and Urban Mining (SUM-2024), May 15-17, Capri, Italy, ISBN 9788862650403, EUROWASTE, Padova, Italy, 5/2024.
Abstract
In the SmartRecycling project, a consortium of seven partners from industry and academia develop a solution for the automated sorting of bulky wastes. If successful, this solution is expected to increase the quality and efficiency of the sorting process and to lead to a higher recycling rate in this sector. To achieve this goal, the project makes use of state-of-the-art data-driven AI for object classification and object manipulation. The final goal of the project is to develop technical solutions that yield good results while minimizing the need for investment in new infrastructure. With respect to the object classification, the project investigates material identification based on multi-spectral camera images. For object manipulation, we test the use of AI-based controllers for large hydraulic machines. This paper outlines the concept and technical approach taken in SmartRecycling and summarizes first results of the project.