Robotic Waste Sorting

Kan, Arianna; Fischler, Mikayla A.; Heavey, Kyle

Student Work

Robotic Waste Sorting Public

The recycling industry is struggling under tight profit margins, changing waste policies, and fast evolving waste market regulations. One notable issue is processing the highly contaminated single-stream recycling waste generated by the world’s growing population. This project contributes to the long-term goal of developing a waste-sorting robot to efficiently sort single-stream recyclables. We designed a robotic recycling test bed that consists of a robotic arm, an actuated X-Z Cartesian platform, and a modular control system. We also developed a three-jaw gripper designed for effective cardboard picking from a mixed waste stream. Such outcomes provide the main architecture for establishing a robotic waste sorting experimental setup at WPI.

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