Solid waste sorting using visual and RFID sensing with a collaborative robot

The rising volume of consumer generated waste has led to a critical overload of landfills. As a consequence, effective waste management has become essential for both human well-being and environmental sustainability. Waste sorting plays a particularly crucial role in enabling efficient waste management within the circular economy framework, which emphasizes the recovery of raw materials for recycling. Automating waste sorting facilities offers a viable solution, enhancing sorting efficiency while safeguarding human health. This paper presents a waste sorting framework utilizing a collaborative robot. A vision-based classification algorithm is implemented to identify waste requiring sorting. Additionally, a Radio Frequency Identification sensory system monitors the proximity of human workers to the collaborative robot, ensuring safe operation. Experimental validation confirms the system’s effectiveness, demonstrating successful waste sorting through reliable material detection (frame rate of 5 Frames per Seconds vision processing) and dynamic safety adaptation. The cobot seamlessly transitions from standard joint speeds of 0.3 rad/s to safe collaborative joints speeds of 0.1 rad/s upon human detection, ensuring both sorting efficiency and worker safety. The Radio Frequency Identification system provides rapid human detection within a 1.5 m perimeter around the robot workspace.