MRF TECHNOLOGY
You can’t manage what you can’t measure: recycling with AI-powered robotics AMP ROBOTICS’ ROB WRITZ TALKS ROBOT POWER, MATERIAL INTELLIGENCE, AND THE FUTURE OF THE MRF BY KEITH BARKER, EDITOR
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t the 2020 MRF Summit in November, hosted jointly by ISRI and SWANA, Rob Writz, director of business development for AMP Robotics, was one of three panellists in a session titled: “Improve Efficiency and Productivity Through Technology.” Along with Will Herzog from Machinex; Brent Hildebrand, GFL’s director of recycling; and moderator Michael Timpane from industry consulting firm Resource Recycling Systems (RRS), the session focused on the very important role automation, artificial intelligence, and specifically, robotic sorting technology, have played so far, and will play, as our industry continues to evolve rapidly through the next decade. According to Rob Writz, while it has not been long since robots first made
inroads into recycling (since about 2016) the impact they’re having on the productivity and efficiency of materials recovery facilities (MRFs) is now clearly evident. “Robots address many of the central challenges the recycling industry currently faces, from worker safety and bale purity to labour shortages, all while lowering the overall long-term cost of recycling,” said Writz. Most recyclables sorting robots deployed today use some form of artificial intelligence software, combined most commonly with near-infrared or optical sensors. The latter is now more common and uses a video camera, not too dissimilar from what might be used in the average smartphone, but more industrialized. AMP’s robots are integrated with an optical sensor and AI to digitize objects that pass by on a conveyor belt. Colours, shapes, textures, logos and other traits are detected, and correlated with mate-
24 Recycling Product News November/December 2020
rial types so that the platform learns to identify objects in the same way a human does. According to Writz, AMP is the only robotics manufacturing company focused on the recycling industry (of which there are currently less than 10 major manufacturers globally) that has developed both their in-house artificial intelligence and engineering software, as well as the robotic hardware and components. AMP’s software is designed to understand the heterogeneity, value and contamination in solid waste streams, and it grows smarter and more effective over time as AMP’s fleet of AI-guided robots expands. “This is material intelligence – a new category of information,” wrote Writz in a recent blog. “The power of AI as a tool for boosting productivity and efficiency is still in its early stages, and we’re working with innovative customers like GFL Environmental on new
