Finnish manufacturer uses epic movie trailer to unleash recycling robot.
If, like me, you have grown up watching sci-fi movies in which machines take over the world, what you’re about to see may well strike fear into your very soul.
But fret not. The Finnish innovators behind a new industrial robot that is able to recognise and sort construction and demolition waste assure us that there is little chance of these things ever becoming self-aware and rendering human beings obsolete.
ZenRobotics, which is based in Helsinki and raised $16 million in funding last year, has developed a robotic arm called the Recycler, which uses a process called sensor fusion to determine between materials like stone, wood, and metal. Sensor fusion is exactly what it sounds like: a carefully calibrated recipe of sensors, including scales, visible spectrum cameras, near-infrared spectrometers and haptic sensors, that determine whether a chunk of material belongs where.
And this is not just pie in a sci-fi sky. This spring, ZenRobotics is installing Recyclers at several recycling sites in Finland, and any interested parties can buy the machines online.
And if the machine itself is anywhere near as cool as the following trailer video, it could just conquer the world. Read more here, or view the video below.
