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Revolutionising recycling with AI-enabled robots
CategoriesSustainable News

Revolutionising recycling with AI-enabled robots

By Zarkon Group,

Spotted: Even in areas that have established comprehensive recycling systems, very often huge amounts of recyclables don’t actually end up getting recycled. In the UK, recycling rates have ‘plateaued’ at around 43 per cent in recent years, while in the US, almost 70 per cent of municipal waste doesn’t get recycled or composted.

Enter Glacier, which has developed an AI-enabled sorting robot to help materials recycling facilities more efficiently separate individual recyclables. The robots can accurately identify more than 30 different types of recyclables as they move along conveyor belts. In addition, the robots collect real-time data on the volume of recyclables, contamination rates, and other details.

The robot takes up about the space as a human, can achieve cost payback in as little as six months, and can be installed with no downtime or heavy machinery. The company’s co-founder, Areeb Malik, told Springwise that “existing sortation solutions were too expensive, difficult to install, and expensive to maintain and repair.” Glacier’s robot, in contrast, is “purpose-built to solve these exact pain points.”

Glacier, which is led by a female CEO, earlier completed a $4.5 million (around €4.1 million) seed round led by venture firm New Enterprise Associates (NEA). More recently, the company has received an additional $7.7 million (around €7 million) in funding from NEA and Amazon’s Climate Pledge Fund, with additional participation from other investors. Malik explained that the technology is already live in about a dozen facilities across the US and the company expects significant growth going forward.

There is increasing urgency in finding solutions to the world’s growing waste problem. Springwise has recently spotted the use of plastic waste as a bitumen replacement and AI technology that combats food waste.

Written By: Lisa Magloff

Reference

Robots and AI speed up homebuilding
CategoriesSustainable News

Robots and AI speed up homebuilding

By Zarkon Group,

Spotted: A global housing shortage is keeping millions of people out of affordable homes. In Canada, more than 3.5 million new housing units are required by 2030, and that is in addition to those already in development. Labour shortages are a further challenge affecting most industries, including construction. 

Artificial intelligence (AI) could help builders keep up with demand, and Toronto-based Promise Robotics uses off-the-shelf industrial robots to power its proprietary homebuilding production system. A cloud-connected software platform oversees every stage of construction, from initial building designs to scheduling factory operations and on-site logistics. 

The system is offered as a service to homebuilding professionals seeking ways to run their businesses more efficiently. No robotics knowledge is required, and construction partners can use the platform to oversee operations for multiple building locations and projects.  

The AI optimises designs and factory operations for everything from single-family units to multi-story, mixed-use structures. Businesses can then deploy their staff to the most efficient roles. By increasing efficiency across the entire homebuilding process, Promise Robotics believes that up to 560 megatonnes of carbon emissions could be prevented annually.  

The company is currently completing construction on its pilot factory in Alberta, and following a series A funding round that raised CA$20.8 million (around €13.9 million), has plans to expand across North America.

From regenerative farming to cleaning the hulls of boats, Springwise’s database features a number of innovations making effective use of versatile robotics technology.

Written By: Keely Khoury

Reference

Two-wheeled robots for on-site security
CategoriesSustainable News

Two-wheeled robots for on-site security

By Zarkon Group,

Spotted: The global security industry is growing rapidly – worth around $113 billion (around €108 billion) in 2022, the global physical security market is projected to reach almost $210 billion (around €200 billion) by 2032. However, at the same time, there is a growing shortage of security workers.

One way to plug the labour gap is with robots, and Ascento is one company that is hoping to do just that. Ascento has developed autonomous, wheel-legged Ascento Guard robots that are designed to navigate any terrain. Because it’s all-weather capable, it can help secure outdoor warehouses and campuses, as well as outdoor venues.

Ascento Guards can detect unwanted people on premises, verify perimeter integrity, check that doors and windows are closed, record property lights, identify floods and fires, and control parking lots. Using artificial intelligence (AI), the robot analyses videos and creates reports, integrating with existing video management systems. Helpfully, the Guard can be installed and deployed in just a few hours and can be hired by the hour, just like human guards.

At the same time as announcing the release of the Guard, Ascento also reported the completion of a $4.3 million (around €4 million) pre-seed funding round, led by Wingman Ventures and Playfair. According to the company, new customers are signing up every month and its fleet mileage has grown by more than 70 per cent month-on-month since the start of 2023.

Robotic guards join a wide number of innovations in robotics spotted in the Springwise archive, including robots that can pack produce and provide mobile, on-demand electric vehicle (EV) charging.

Written By: Lisa Magloff

Reference

Deterring pests with AI and robots
CategoriesSustainable News

Deterring pests with AI and robots

By Zarkon Group,

Spotted: For thousands of years, farmers have used low-tech methods like scarecrows to deter birds from eating their crops – to varying degrees of success. In Africa, it’s estimated that cereal farmers in some regions could be losing between 15 and 20 per cent of their yield to birds. To prevent this, they often employ young children to chase the birds away. Now, five young Ghanaian scientists and entrepreneurs have come up with an improvement.

The entrepreneurs formed a company, called AiScarecrow, which uses artificial intelligence (AI) to scare birds away from crops. The startup’s solution is a drone that can mimic the appearance and behaviour of a predatory bird, and is realistic enough to scare away pest birds. Because the birds respond to what they consider is a natural situation – the presence of a predator – the drone causes no harm to the birds or damage to the environment.

AiScarecrow targets cereal crops, which are at particular risk from loss to bird predation. The company has its own technician to operate the drone birds, but can also train manual bird scarers to switch to using the drones.

The company was established through the Kosmos Innovations Center’s (KIC) Agritech challenge, a Ghanaian incubator that focuses on the agricultural sector. Beyond its pest-control drone, AiScarecrow has also developed agricultural drone technology for spraying, mapping, and crop management.

Eliminating pests in a sustainable manner is the subject of a wide number of innovations spotted by Springwise Springwise. Some of the most recent in the archive include nature-inspired insecticides and the use of computer vision to spot pests early.

Written By: Lisa Magloff

Reference

Warehouse robots that work with people
CategoriesSustainable News

Warehouse robots that work with people

By Zarkon Group,

Spotted: By 2026, it is expected that the UK logistics sector will face a shortage of 400,000 workers. One solution to this problem is automation, and our 2022 European Logistics Occupier Survey found that 80 per cent of occupiers believe that warehouse robotics are the top technology disruptor to logistics supply chains. But does this mean that robots will replace human workers? Or will organisations opt for a hybrid approach to automation? 

One startup that is firmly promoting the hybrid route is Robust.AI, a US-based company that develops robots that help human workers be more productive.  

According to the company, many robotic solutions make people feel unsafe and unseen, which leads to inefficient operations. As a result, it has developed a Collaborative Mobile Robot (CMR) called ‘Carter’. This CMR, the startup’s first hardware product, is designed to not only work near workers, but with them. The robots, which are essentially autonomous warehouse carts, move with and respond to human workers – like a ‘dance partner’ – and can be easily taken over manually by a worker grabbing the handlebar. The idea is that the robots will take care of laborious and repetitive tasks, such as transporting objects, leaving human workers to focus on high-value activities such as picking and packing.

Supporting Robust.AI’s hardware is its software suite ‘Grace’. This, the company claims, allows facilities managers to introduce automation quickly without changing their existing environment. To set up Grace, employees walk through the warehouse using the camera on a phone or tablet to map the environment. This creates a digital model of the facility, which can be used to set up workflows, all through a standard web browser. For example, a facilities manager can set up a virtual conveyor belt between two points in a warehouse using the robots. 

The Grace software is also installed on the Carter robots, allowing them to perceive and track people, locations, and objects. The robots then feed their perceptions back to fleet intelligence to optimise the system.

Springwise has spotted many other ways robots are being used, including to clean ships and make deliveries.

Written By: Matthew Hempstead

Reference

Robots monitor underwater environments without human intervention
CategoriesSustainable News

Robots monitor underwater environments without human intervention

By Zarkon Group,

Spotted: According to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC), our oceans have absorbed 90 per cent of all heat generated by rising greenhouse gas emissions and taken in 30 per cent of carbon emissions. Climate change, along with direct human activity like overfishing, is having a devastating impact on ocean biodiversity. Mapping these underwater environments provides experts with baseline data, with which they can monitor change and plan for mitigation. Belgium robotics company uWare is helping gather that data with autonomous underwater robots. 

Called the uOne, the system’s robot inspects both built and natural environments, providing essential data to organisations with underwater assets, as well as those working to conserve and repair marine habitats. The robots are programmed for consistent, continuous monitoring of a certain set of geolocal parameters and run for up to four hours at a time, remaining stable even in harsh weather conditions.  

The autonomous underwater vehicles (AUV) deploy from shore or a boat and do not require users to be in the water. Monitoring routes are saved and repeated as regularly as required, with bespoke analyses of new locations or highly specific locations added whenever needed.

Video source uWare

UWare provides multiple data packages to clients. The initial gathering of data provides high-resolution imagery, depth and temperature readings, and other types of information tracking can be added to the drone’s capabilities depending on the environment being surveyed. The cloud-based uDataboard stores and tracks the data, and users can download raw files for in-house analysis. UWare can also provide visualisations and automated processing for easy, quick review and sharing of information.   

AUVs are frequently taking on some of the more dangerous jobs in monitoring the health of the world’s oceans. In the archive, Springwise has also spotted remote-controlled robots monitoring underwater gas leaks and a jellyfish-like robot collecting rubbish.

Written By: Keely Khoury

Reference

Robots helping children with disabilities stay on track
CategoriesSustainable News

Robots helping children with disabilities stay on track

By Zarkon Group,

Spotted: Teaching in an inclusive manner that makes full use of accessibility technologies can greatly “improve the potential for learning in children and youth with learning disabilities.” Robots have been used in recent years to assist students with autism spectrum disorder, and now a team of researchers at the Social and Intelligent Robotics Research Laboratory (SIRRL) at the University of Waterloo in Canada has created a robot to help students with learning disabilities stay focused on the tasks at hand.  

Led by Dr Kerstin Dautenhahn, a professor of electrical and computer engineering, the group tested a social assistance robot named QT in classrooms. Instructors use a tablet to communicate with the robot, including indicating when the robot is to lead a one-on-one lesson with a student. 

QT uses hand and head gestures, as well as changing facial expressions and speech to communicate. In order to help students stay attuned to the lesson, the robot uses a mix of jokes, games, breathing exercises, and physical movement.  

The studies found that the students who learned alongside the robot completed more of their tasks than those without QT. Now, the research team is planning further studies of the robot’s assistive capabilities, along with ways in which the technology could be made more widely accessible.  

From an online assessment that identifies children struggling to read to a mobile-first education platform, Springwise is spotting innovations making education fun and easy to access for a range of abilities.

Written By: Keely Khoury

Reference

Autonomous robots help with nuclear decommissioning
CategoriesSustainable News

Autonomous robots help with nuclear decommissioning

By Zarkon Group,

Spotted: One of the main downsides of nuclear power is the challenge of decommissioning old facilities, a process that requires adequate technologies, sufficient funding, solutions for the management of nuclear waste, and a skilled workforce.

Smart robots can play an important role in decommissioning legacy power stations quickly, safely, and cheaply, and a new project in Cumbria, known as the ‘Robotics and AI Collaboration’ (RAICo), is developing robots that are designed to think and act for themselves, carrying out work that is too dangerous for humans.

The project is a collaboration between The University of Manchester, the UK Atomic Energy Agency (UKAEA), Sellafield Ltd, the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, and the National Nuclear Laboratory.

“We’re helping Sellafield and other nuclear end-users to develop the next generation of remote surveying and handling equipment so they can improve their operations,” explains Professor Barry Lennox, a leading member of the RAICo team.

The project’s ultimate goal is to transfer the technology it develops to sites across the UK. RAICo will also provide a pilot for the development of robotic systems in other sectors, such as the offshore energy sector, agriculture, nuclear fusion, and even outer space.

The technology is described as ‘hot’ robotics, a prefix that was coined to reflect the use of robots in radioactive environments inside nuclear reactors. Professor Lennox, however, believes that the meaning of ‘hot’ will now need to be broadened as the technology is applied to more general applications.

Other robotics innovations recently spotted by Springwise include the SeaClear system, which uses a combination of robotics and machine learning to efficiently locate and remove marine debris, and a dam in China that is being built by robots.

Written By: Katrina Lane

26th July 2022

Website: hotrobotics.co.uk

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Autonomous robots collect seafloor litter
CategoriesSustainable News

Autonomous robots collect seafloor litter

By Zarkon Group,

Spotted:  There is an estimated 75 to 119 million tonnes of plastic waste in our oceans today. And while most endeavours to tackle ocean waste have focused on addressing litter floating on the surface, the majority of it is found on the ocean floor.

The underwater environment poses a unique challenge. Traditional methods of cleaning up the ocean floor are both dangerous and expensive, involving human divers who are put at risk every time they descend into the depths. In response, researchers from the EU-funded SeaClear project are developing an AI-based solution for cleaning up the ocean floor without putting human life in danger.

The SeaClear system uses a combination of robotics and machine learning to efficiently locate and remove marine debris. A boat, a drone, two underwater robots, and a collection basket make up the system. The boat functions like a sort of mothership, acting as a communication hub and power source for the robots.

How does it work? The boat marks any large debris encountered on the ocean floor using a type of sonar called a multibeam echosounder. The drones also use sonar to identify large pockets of debris from the air. The underwater robots are then deployed to collect the debris and deposit it in the basket. The whole process is automated, making it much more efficient and effective than traditional methods of marine litter collection.

SeaClear project partner Subsea Tech in France developed the innovative system, which is now being tested in real-world conditions. This new solution has the potential to revolutionise the way we deal with ocean pollution and help to keep our seas clean for future generations.

Other innovations spotted by Springwise that clean up marine litter include okra used to clean up microplastics, a fleet of giant floating barriers tackling the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, and a beer company hosting a tournament to fish plastic out of the ocean.

Written By: Katrina Lane

7th July 2022

Website: seaclear-project.eu

Contact: seaclear-project.eu/contact

Reference

China to use robots to 3D print the second-largest hydroelectric power station in Asia
CategoriesSustainable News

China to use robots to 3D print the second-largest hydroelectric power station in Asia

By Zarkon Group,

Spotted: China recently announced the construction of a massive dam on the Yellow River in Qinghai Province. The hydroelectric power station will be the second-largest in Asia. At 390-feet tall, the dam will be similar in height to the Three Gorges Dam (594 feet tall) – which is currently the biggest hydroelectric power plant in the world.

As the world moves to stop burning fossil fuels, two of the most popular renewable energy sources are solar and wind. Despite solar and wind power getting most of the attention, hydropower is more efficient and has a higher output capacity. In such a spirit, China’s Yellow River dam will show that hydropower is still a viable option for generating large amounts of renewable electricity.

Construction of the Yangqu Dam is well underway, and plans are for it to be built entirely by robots, without any human labour. The use of artificial intelligence (AI) and robots for construction is not only faster and more efficient – it also eliminates the need for human labour, which can be expensive and dangerous. In the case of the Yangqu Dam, using robots will also help to ensure that the dam is built to exact specifications.

In 2024, the first section of the Yangqu Dam will become operational. The entire project is expected to be completed the following year. Once complete, the dam is predicted to generate almost five billion kilowatt-hours of electricity per year, according to the South China Morning Post. That’s half a billion more than Arizona’s Hoover Dam – which is 726 feet tall and took 5 years to build. Ninety-six people also died during construction of the Hoover Dam. It is hoped that with 3D modelling and robotics, Yangqu Dam will be built without such risks.  

Other construction innovations involving robots recently spotted by Springwise include autonomous robots that reduce construction errors at the start of projects, a carbon-negative construction company that uses robotic builders, and the world’s largest 3D-printed building constructed by a robotic construction company.

Written By: Katrina Lane

31st May 2022

Website: jst.tsinghuajournals.com

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