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Robotic Recycling Revolution

Objective

The increasing scarcity for raw materials, growingly strict regulations (European Waste Directive & Landfill tax escalation) and social pressure have turned waste into a resource, making recycling highly attractive. This has created a major market opportunity for new technologies that achieve high purity of sorted materials at a low cost.

ZenRobotics Oy has developed a robotic waste sorting system ZenRobotics Recycler (ZRR) that has the potential to revolutionise waste sorting, replacing low-performing hazardous manual jobs with highly efficient and fast autonomous robotic pickers. The key innovation of ZRR is a unique machine-learning based system, which gathers gigabytes of data of its environment, makes smart decisions and moves a robot arm in an unpredictable environment. Given the novelty of the technology, a paradigm shift is necessary in waste management for wide uptake of ZRR.

The Robolution project develops the prototype ZRR into a reliable and commercially attractive system for sorting Commercial and Industrial waste that forms more that 25% of total waste stream. The project focuses on:
• Robot motion control to be able sort faster smaller objects and pick larger and heavier objects.
• Recognition to detect new fractions (plastics, ferrous/non-ferrous metals) with 95% purity and recovery.
• Development of the reporting tool enabling optimization within a waste sorting plant.
• Optimization of the ZRR commissioning and service to shorten time-to-market time.
• Testing and demonstration of the new functionality in real life conditions.

ZenRobotics targets the global waste sorting equipment market currently worth about €1.5-3 billion annually, but thanks to technological advances, the market is likely to explode. The expected annual turnover of the Commercial and Industrial waste ZRR reaches €150 million by 2021.

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

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Programme(s)

Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.

Topic(s)

Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.

Funding Scheme

Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.

SME-2 - SME instrument phase 2

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Call for proposal

Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.

(opens in new window) H2020-SMEInst-2014-2015

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Coordinator

ZenRobotics Ltd.
Net EU contribution

Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.

€ 1 416 625,00
Address
VILHONKATU 5 A
00100 HELSINKI
Finland

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SME

The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.

Yes
Region
Manner-Suomi Helsinki-Uusimaa Helsinki-Uusimaa
Activity type
Private for-profit entities (excluding Higher or Secondary Education Establishments)
Links
Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.

€ 2 023 750,00
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