If your city has a recycling program, you probably do as good a job as you can to make sure that your papers, plastics and general waste are all properly sorted. But at the recycling plant it’s absolutely crucial that everything is thoroughly separated, and even an assembly line full of hawk-eyed workers can’t compare to the speed and accuracy of the Next Generation ZenRobotics Recycler.
Using a laser-based scanning system that looks straight out of a science fiction film, the Zen Robotics Recycler can sort incoming materials into various categories before a series of robotic arms pick and place the pieces of garbage off a constantly moving six-and-a-half-feet wide conveyor belt.
If only the same technology could be adopted for home use, you’d never have to yell at your teenager for not keeping their room neat and tidy ever again. [Zen Robotics via IEEE Spectrum]
