Hardware Podcasts

Episode 114: Reducing waste with robotics - Josie Gotz

Robot Talk · 21 Mar 2025 · 27m · Episode 114

What this episode covers

Josie Gotz, a Senior Research Engineer at the Manufacturing Technology Centre (MTC), discusses the challenges and opportunities of using robotics for material recovery, reuse, and recycling. She highlights the difficulty of automating the disassembly of electric vehicle (EV) batteries due to high product variance and low return on investment compared to manufacturing. Gotz explains how AI and computer vision are critical for handling this variability, enabling robots to identify components and plan disassembly strategies in real-time. She also argues that regulatory changes, such as 'product as a service' models and battery passports, are essential to incentivize manufacturers to design for disassembly and make robotic recycling economically viable.

Most relevant to

early-stage companies

Topics

Mentioned

Companies
Manufacturing Technology Centre, VW, Jaguar Land Rover, Rolls-Royce, Nissan
Products
EV batteries
Also
black mass, battery passports

Related episodes from other shows

Other shows on the same ground, closest first.

  • How I Built This · 32m

    When robots recycle with Matanya Horowitz of AMP Robotics

    Matanya Horowitz, founder and CEO of AMP Robotics, explains how his company uses AI and robotics to automate waste sorting, a sector where only about 35% of US waste is currently recycled. Horowitz details the transition from using mechanical claws to vacuum-based systems to handle sticky contaminants like dried milk, and discusses the economic challenges of making recycling profitable by lowering sorting costs below the value of the recovered commodities. He also describes AMP's strategy of selling robots to existing facilities while building its own green-field recycling plants to demonstrate the technology's potential and drive industry reshoring.

    Robotics & autonomyAI & machine learning
    6 chapters

  • People of Packaging · 32m

    191 - Will AI help close the gaps in recycling? Apurba Pradhan from Everest Labs

    Apurba Pradhan, head of product and marketing at Everest Labs, explains how his company uses AI and robotics to automate sorting at Material Recovery Facilities (MRFs). He details the inefficiencies of manual labor and semi-precise optical sorters, describing how their system replaces human pickers to improve commodity purity. Pradhan highlights the company's service model, which includes 24/7 monitoring and performance guarantees to ensure ROI and address MRFs' lack of technical staff. The conversation covers the impact of the Chinese National Sword policy on domestic recycling demand and the economic viability of automation in the current market.

    Robotics & autonomyManufacturing partners & offshoring
    6 chapters

  • Hardware to Save a Planet · 41m

    Innovative Waste Recycling: AI and Robotics with Areeb Malik, Co-founder of Glacier

    Areeb Malik, co-founder of Glacier, explains how his company uses AI and robotics to automate sorting at Materials Recovery Facilities (MRFs), addressing the industry's labor shortages and contamination issues. He details the technical challenges of computer vision for trash classification and robotic end-effectors, noting that Glacier's custom-designed robots cost 60% less than competitors and offer a payback period of under two years. Malik also discusses the impact of China's 'National Sword' policy on global recycling markets and the growing demand for recycled content driven by legislation and consumer pressure.

    Robotics & autonomyAI & machine learning
    8 chapters

  • Over the Air · 36m

    Sustainability in the Robotics-as-a-Service Industry

    Stefan Nusser, Chief Product Officer at Fetch Robotics, discusses the company's recent acquisition by Zebra Technologies and how the Robotics-as-a-Service (RaaS) model drives sustainability in B2B robotics. He explains that Fetch’s autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) are designed for modularity and reuse, contrasting this with the disposable nature of many consumer electronics. Nusser highlights the importance of finding product-market fit through early pilot customers and the future potential of orchestrating workflows between human workers and collaborative robots.

    Sustainability & circular productsRobotics & autonomy
    6 chapters

  • The Robot Report Podcast · 1h 12m

    Inside Glacier's Mission to Modernize Recycling

    Rebecca Hu-Thrams, CEO and co-founder of Glacier, explains how Glacier Robotics builds custom gantry robots to automate material recovery facilities (MURFs), addressing the challenge of sorting diverse, contaminated waste streams with high precision and uptime. She details the company's strategic partnerships with major brands like Amazon and Colgate-Palmolive to use AI data for better packaging design, and highlights their focus on achieving sub-12-month payback periods for recycling facilities. The episode also covers news from Parallax Worlds, which raised $4 million for digital twin simulation, and discusses the broader robotics industry trends including Physical Intelligence's funding and Agile Robots' industrial humanoids.

    Robotics & autonomyMechanical engineering
    8 chapters

The summary, chapters and topics are generated from the episode’s audio by this directory, not written by Robot Talk. The episode itself belongs to its publisher.