Generating momentum in the circular economy means we must manage our waste smarter. As the worlds population grows, so does its waste generation. In places where people spend a lot of their time, like university campuses, mitigating waste is critical to achieving sustainability goals.
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Higher education institutions are perfect candidates for introducing innovative solutions to tackle environmental challenges. Their ongoing research, development of new technologies, and presence and authority in the community make colleges and universities the ideal places to disrupt traditional waste practices and demonstrate their commitment to intelligent solutions.
Education Begins with Responsibility
Universities and other educational settings provide an excellent growth opportunity for waste technologies as they represent environments where the population naturally generates a large amount of waste, including food waste. In its most recent waste audit, Toronto Metropolitan University found that over 60% of all waste sent to landfill could be composted or recycled. The University of Richmond, which has set an ambitious goal of 75% waste diversion by , found in a audit that as much as onethird of the campus waste sent to landfill was compostable.
Millennials and Gen Z, groups that make up the majority of college students, have reported a deeper sense of responsibility for fighting climate change. Their commitment to prioritizing sustainability makes them the ideal audience to support and help implement new strategies.
Making a Complex Process More Efficient with ArtificiaI Intelligence
Enhanced waste management depends on finding and separating reusable material from vast quantities of refuse. Traditional bin systems place the burden on the user to sort their waste into the correct bin; however, even with adequate signage, humans get this right only 30% of the time. Confusing recycling rules and a lack of education result in high contamination rates and poor diversion.
Applications of artificial intelligence (AI) in waste management help simplify a formerly complicated, expensive, and painstaking process. One of the key solutions AI offers is eliminating the users decision-making process at the source, which has positive ramifications down the line. AI technologies can impact the entire waste lifecycle, from sorting at the source to real-time monitoring and analysis, to predictive modeling, to increasing public engagement.
For campuses, AI can drastically impact the cost efficiency of waste collection. In addition to increased sorting accuracy, smart bins can deliver fullness alerts, so custodians only need to check the bins when they receive a notification. This helps to improve custodial efficiency and reduce unnecessary labor. The data collected by smart bins can also deliver expense projections and illuminate areas for improvement.
Waste data is highly effective at reflecting waste trends specific to a campus and its population. These insights are the key for universities that want to support their student population while reducing waste generation. Waste audits can reveal an overabundance of certain materials in the landfill bin, which can inform purchasing decisions. They can also illuminate knowledge gaps, such as if the bin notices recyclable bottles are thrown away with liquids still in them.
Many universities still conduct manual waste audits by transporting all the campus waste to one location and having volunteers sift through it by hand. Smart bins streamline this process by automatically recording data as waste is collected. High-quality analytics and on-demand audits can be accessed through a simple online dashboard. These analytics are critical to decision- making and improving policies.
Tech solutions that combine autonomous waste management and an enhanced user experience will have the most significant long-term impact. Smart bin systems using AI and robotics to sort waste at the time of disposal manage the process for the user. These systems can be calibrated to comply with local recycling rules and regulations, which means minimal or no contamination and the avoidance of fines.
AI bins also provide value through responsive recycling education. Despite their best intentions, humans often become the biggest barriers to recycling. Due to a gap in recycling education, people will throw containers with grease or other food contaminants into recycling bins. Wishcycling is also a phenomenon that causes significant issues for recycling systems. People put something in the recycling bin that they hope will be recycled, but the reality is that it contaminates the rest of the waste in the bin, and everything goes to landfill.
Oscar Sort and EvoBin, made in Canada and the U.S., provide gamification and respond to the user as they deposit their waste. TrashBot, also made in the U.S., uses AI and computer vision to recognize the waste deposited and, through a built-in screen, delivers context-specific education based on the waste disposed. The benefit of all these systems is that users can participate in the process and get tips on how to improve their recycling behavior. Recycling education is a critical link that connects people and their impact.
Machine learning provides an additional benefit to waste management, as it allows the system to get smarter over time. The more unique waste items a smart bin sees, the more waste it can identify and sort. As these bins recognize more unique waste items, their data tracking ability improves.
Benefits for Facilities
Using smart bin solutions for waste disposal can mean substantial benefits for a campus, including:
- Increased student engagement around waste reduction and recycling
- Customizable compliance, meaning more cost-effective recycling
- Digitization of waste management
- Real-time data and analytics
- Custom messaging and education delivered via a content management system
- Higher diversion rates and lower disposal fees
- Credits toward green certifications
Committing to sustainability is a lifelong endeavor, so college environments are critical to introducing and nurturing this knowledge. The next generation of thinkers, creators, and leaders are todays students. Purposeful engagement and support of AI-powered recycling systems will help students retain these critical, sustainable behaviors once they leave the university setting and will ultimately drive a zero-waste future.
Rachel Whitener is PR and Communications Associate at CleanRobotics in Colorado. She can be reached at [ protected]. This is her first article for Facilities Manager.
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In recent years, the overall scale of express industry has expanded rapidly in China with swift growth of e-commerce industry, and the annual business volume has exceeded 30 billion. This increase requires higher sorting efficiency of express and mail. The automatic cross-belt sorter widely applied in industry has efficient processing capacity, but the high investment and strong rigidity cause certain worry of express enterprises about the investment. At present, the wide application of sorting robot system has attracted the attention of express enterprises and rapidly becomes the new trend of intelligentialized and automated development.
The figure shows a series of Geek+'s sorting robots.
All ages of sorting robot
The express market has grown at a rapid speed since , however, the lack of efficient and low-cost mail processing scheme has become an important factor restricting the development of express industry. On the one hand, the difficulty of employment becomes increasingly prominent; there are problems e.g. disorderly employment, labor shortage and high labor cost in market during the peak period of big promotion events such as Double-11 and the Spring Festival; on the other hand, it is difficult to achieve centralized and batch processing for diverse express goods and varied specifications.
The sorting robot system came into being based on efficient and accurate sorting requirements of express logistics customers. The combination of sorting robot system with fast code-reading and intelligent sorting system of industrial camera can realize fast sorting and information recording interaction after the package weighing / code-reading. The sorting robot system can greatly reduce the manual demands in sorting process, improve the efficiency and automation degree, and greatly improve the accuracy rate. With the improvement of big data algorithm, gradual standardization of express & mail information and integration of intelligent control system, the sorting robot system has become a highly fit-product of the logistics industry transformed from labor-intensive industry to batch intelligence.
Geek+ has been concentrated on intelligent warehousing logistics since establishment; it allows the leading AI robot technology to energize traditional logistics industry so as to promote the intelligent reform of the whole logistics industry. Various independently-developed sorting robots can be applied to different sorting scenes, including small-parcel sorting, large-parcel sorting and floor-type sorting with steel free platform, which can be utilized in the express sorting of e-commerce and post-distributing center.
Robot sorting operation flow
Collection
After arriving at the sorting center, the parcel is discharged to belt conveyor; the worker controls the supplying rhythm, and parcel is conveyed to the picking area at 2F by belt conveyor.
Placement
The workers only need to place the parcel in direction of upwards waybill on the automatic sorting robot, and robot carries parcel through portal frame to scan waybill and read order information, it can automatically weigh the parcel at the same time; and the information of parcel will be directly displayed and uploaded to the control system.
Robot sorting:
All sorting robots are equipped with backstage management system control and scheduling; and each robot is arranged with the best path for parcel delivery according to algorithm optimization. The S-series sorting robots of Geek+ can realize the functions of mutual dodge and automatic obstacle-avoidance during the sorting operation; the system avoids congestion of robots according to real-time road running condition as far as possible. When robot runs to the destination bin, it stops running and push the parcel into bin through the roller track above it, and the parcel falls into the gathering area at 1F through sideways. The destination bin is set according to city. In the future, the number of bin can be flexibly adjusted with the increase of business volume, and even a city can be distributed with multiple bins.
Gathering and loading:
After the gathering workers complete the package, the parcel will be placed on the conveyor belt and automatically loaded.
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Multi-model robot sorting solution
There are mainly three models of sorting robots independently developed by Geek+ --- S10, S20 and S500, which can be divided into S10c, S10t and S500c according to carriers. "c" stands for roller carrier, and "t" stands for turnover carrier.
Small-parcel sorting solution:
The application scene of S10c sorting robot in China Post
S10 sorting robot mainly aims at sorting operation of small-parcel below 10kg with specifications of about 300-400mm. A single robot can carry 1 parcel at supplying point and then pick to bin. The transfer mechanism supports bi-directional delivery and sorting, which requires bi-directional delivery at bin. 600mm*600mm size of delivery bin is suitable for the delivery of small parcel with general sizes.
Geek+ sorting system's functional modules include automatic charging and electricity balance system, path planning and intelligent scheduling system, automatic scanning & code-reading system, automatic obstacle-avoidance system, etc.
S10c robot
The small-parcel robot sorting scheme has been widely applied in sorting scene of China post parcel processing center. Cooperative work of a total of 300 robots in of S10 robot-area and 50 S500 robots (later in detail) only need 5 workers. The robot runs at 3m/s, the peak sorting value exceeds parcels / h. The robot can be automatically charged and can operate continuously for 4 hours when charging for 5 minutes. The principle of "slight charging and discharge" is carried out.
Large-parcel sorting solution:
Compared with the light and small S10 robot, S500 robot has larger volume and weight, which is more suitable for large parcel sorting. It can sort the parcel less than 100kg, and the double roller carrier supports the robot to sort two parcel at one time. It can be applied to both the secondary sorting of small parcel and sorting of large and irregular parcel.
The figure shows the application of S500c robot in large-parcel sorting scene of Post.
Geek+S500c robot
The large-parcel sorting scheme can be utilized in combination with small-parcel sorting scheme. It has been applied in large scale in Wuhan processing center of China Post. The entire robot area is , running 50 S500 and 300 S10 robots, belonging to large-parcel and small-parcel mixed sorting scene. This scene is the first application in China, which can greatly improve the sorting efficiency to parcels / h, and improve the accuracy of parcel sorting.
Interweaving sorting solution the first sorting system without steel platform in China
It generally needs to build two layers of steel-platform scattered path intersection for robot sorting system; the pouch is placed on one layer, and the robot on the second layer runs and delivers parcel to bin, parcel falls into pouch along the bin; and a sorting is completed. However, the construction of steel platform requires high-standard for transformation of warehouse, and the cost is about /. In process of deploying the robot sorting system, it usually needs to reform the original warehouse; and the cost, time limit and movement are all difficulties during the deployment period.
Based on the precise control of demands for sorting flow, Geek+ carries out continuous exploration and innovation on the application of robot in parcel sorting system solution, and independently develops the interweaving sorting system without steel platform.The highly intelligent and flexible system scheduling can reduce the robot path intersection to the maximum extent; the efficiency data can exceed the peak value of steel platform sorting.
The interweaving sorting system completes the sorting through the cooperation of S20 robot and background management system. S20 robot is independently developed by Geek+; the bottom robot carrier is equipped with pack-up device and conveyor roller; the height of the conveyor roller is 700mm and can be directly connected with the roll container. Both S20 robot and original turnover S10 robot use QR code navigation, determine the direction of parcel by scanning the QR code on parcel; and then, the robot moves parcel to corresponding roll container for sorting. The S20 robot's sorting weight is 20kg; it can sort the parcel with size >50cm*50cm, which is equivalent to cross-belt sorter; it has good flexibility and scalability; the sorting efficiency can ranged from or parcels /h to tens of thousands parcels /h, which fully reflects the elastic application of flexible automation in sorting scene.
Geek+S20 robot
The new interweaving parcel sorting system designed by Geek+ provides a strategic solution with small investment, quick return, simple implementation, strong scalability, and high degree of informatization and intelligentization for the problems in new normal development of Chinese express service.
This video was shot from VIP.com warehouse in Southern China; it was implemented in December and assorted S20 sorting robot with system scheduling for operation. The number of robots was 200; and the system worked continuously for 24 hours; the sorting efficiency reached parcels / h. This sorting system has successfully gone through Double-12, new year, 4.18 and other large-scale promotional activities, which has greatly improved the sorting efficiency of warehouse.
--The interweaving sorting system is more flexible and standardized.
--It reduces the difficulty of deployment, reduces project volume and cost.
--High standardization degree and short construction period facilitate the system implementation within 20 days.
--Flexible layout and application can minimize the site transformation.
--It can be used as the automatic lifting of manual sorting and a fully-automated sorting system.
Strengths of robot sorting system
Compared with the cross-belt sorter in express industry, the sorting robot system can achieve 15,000 parcels/h as a new automatic sorting technology, and it is more powerful in system flexibility and scalability.
Strong system scalability: the bin of cross-belt sorter is fixed, and the sorting robot system can be expanded according to the demands for business growth.
Low labor cost: The staff position of the robot sorting system is compact and the efficiency is improved; it can save about 40% of labor cost under the same processing efficiency compared to cross-belt sorter, which solves the violent sorting in express industry and ensures the safety of parcel.
Low sorting error: the sorting robot is adopted with static unloading; and the theoretical sorting error rate is 0 as long as the parcel information is correct.
High system reliability: the robot sorting system is composed of many independently-operated sorting robots; the overall operation efficiency will not be affected by one defective robot. And the system supports remote upgrading and debugging; the related technicians can remotely solve the problem of system scheduling within a short time.
Energy conservation and environment protection: the actual power consumption of the robot sorting system is lower than that of the same size cross-belt sorter, and it is charged by low-power rechargeable battery. The use of green and clean energy can make contributions to efficiency-improvement and cost-reduction of enterprise-level customers.
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