Skip to main content
European Commission logo print header

Robotic Recycling Revolution

Objetivo

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.

Convocatoria de propuestas

H2020-SMEInst-2014-2015

Consulte otros proyectos de esta convocatoria

Convocatoria de subcontratación

H2020-SMEINST-2-2014

Régimen de financiación

SME-2 - SME instrument phase 2

Coordinador

ZenRobotics Ltd.
Aportación neta de la UEn
€ 1 416 625,00
Dirección
VILHONKATU 5 A
00100 HELSINKI
Finlandia

Ver en el mapa

Pyme

Organización definida por ella misma como pequeña y mediana empresa (pyme) en el momento de la firma del acuerdo de subvención.

Región
Manner-Suomi Helsinki-Uusimaa Helsinki-Uusimaa
Tipo de actividad
Private for-profit entities (excluding Higher or Secondary Education Establishments)
Enlaces
Coste total
€ 2 023 750,00