Sandip Singh 
Technologies such as this waste classification by Ishitva Robotics’ NETRA Machine Vision has earned recognition
Remember the plot for the popular sci-fi movie, Wall-E, where robot trash compactors were deployed on Earth to clean the planet? Though set in the future, the movie brought to our attention the harsh environmental reality of today. With 1.3 billion tons of waste being generated every day, the use of robots and machines to manage garbage is the need of the hour.
While automation has entered the waste management sector in the last two decades, but the penetration of incumbent tech solutions has been limited to very few developed markets. Till about 12 months back, the state of automation technologies used for waste management and Material Recovery Facilities (MRF) centers was not suitable to efficiently deal with garbage collected in developing countries where source-level segregation is often very poor.
It is important to note that developing countries already generate more than two-thirds of global waste. However, collection infrastructure in these countries is at a nascent stage. Most of these countries typically have smaller and decentralized sorting centers and therefore a very different approach is needed to not only address the challenges posed by poor collection infrastructure but also provide an economically viable automation solution.
In the last three years, a completely new set of automation solutions has gathered pace in waste management applications with the use of industry 4.0 tools, like Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Vision, and the Internet of Things (IoT). Here’s an example of how AI and robotic solutions are used in the developed world: A South Korean city, Songdo, uses RFID tags to bucket the garbage generated, under various tags. US-based AMP Robotics has built robotic solutions that are being used for purity enhancement purposes in Material Recovery Facilities (MRFs) etc. It is a matter of time before developing countries like India adopt new-age technologies and rapidly build AI-based infrastructure.
On February 1, India’s Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the Union Budget which allocated about USD 19 billion to the Swachh Bharat Mission over the period of five years. Scientific segregation of garbage generated in the country has been given prime importance. The new age AI solutions will play a pivotal role in building this infrastructure for a country like India. One of the key developments towards this is the employment of AI and machine vision to operate new age MRFs.
Recent technology advancements by our team at Ishitva® Robotic Systems provide a paradigm shift in waste management infrastructure creation for countries like India. We have built a range of sorting solutions including SUKA® AI-powered Air Sorter and YUTA AI-powered Robotic Sorter. Combining computer vision, machine learning, and artificial intelligence, we have built highly efficient and cost-effective air sorters that have the capacity to sort mixed waste at a speed of up to six tons per hour.
Further, as India has increased its focus on building waste management infrastructure, we have come up with a revolutionary offering, “Sanjivani”, which is a fully automated MRF suitable for small and decentralized sorting centers. The Sanjivani solution can take automatic operational decisions on the fly, depending on the composition of waste material. This is the first time in the world that AI is now being deployed to run end-to-end MRF and recovery recyclables at a high speed. These solutions open up completely new possibilities for India which is already a key recycling hub for the world.
This blog was first published by Mr Sandip Singh, CEO – Ishitva Robotic Systems (IRS) on February 10, 2021. To know more about IRS, check out our interview with Mr Singh here.
