Next time you pass a building site check out the huge dumpster overflowing with construction refuse. Then think gold, next think ZenRobotics.

This young Helsinki-based company with $22M (?17M) in investor money has a robot solution for the world?s trash problems: dumpster-diving robots. Robots that are not only friends to the environment but also sort gold from trash.

Founded in 2007, privately held ZenRobotics is a high-tech/cleantech company specializing in robotic recycling technology. The company?s product is the ZenRobotics Recycler (ZRR), ready as of 2012, and touted as the world?s first sorting system that separates raw materials from waste.

The machine?s sweet spot is construction or building-site trash? wood, metals, asphalt shingles, bricks, tiles, glass, concrete and gypsum?which amounts to 30 percent* of the of the 2.2 billion tons of solid waste produced annually worldwide.

With the amount of annual waste slated to double by 2025, getting rid of some or all of it in an efficient, green and cost effective way is a top priority for any city, town, municipality or country worldwide, but most especially for highly developed, big waste producers like the U.S and Europe.

The cost of each ZRR system runs an initial $1.29M (?1M); service contract and parts are additional. They have quickly garnered two high-profile customers: Maes Containers, a Belgian sustainable recycling company, and in July 2012, Netherlands-based Baetsen Recycling.

Happy customers and investors alike, that’s success!

ZenRobotics? investors are pleased. Veraventure Ltd a Finnish public investment fund and subsidiary of Finnvera plc provided the initial investment in the company, which was followed by a $17M (? 13M) cash infusion by Invus, an international equity investor with over $4B of evergreen capital under management.

?Invus has now worked with ZenRobotics for a year and we?re excited,? said Wassim Sacre, Director, Invus, in an interview with plastic and wood recycling journalist. Rick LeBlanc. ?The team is exceptionally capable and ready to go global. The revolutionary ZenRobotics Recycler sorting system has improved in leaps, and attracts customers globally. We?re now investing in high-powered growth.?

To his point, ZenRobotics is already global with the ZenRobotics Recycler (ZRR) marketed around the world through a reseller network in 49 countries. Payback time for a ZRR is estimated at less than a year by the company.

?Baetsen is taking the lead in recovering valuable fractions from waste,? said Hans van Roosmalen, CEO. ?In the EU, materials recovery and resource efficiency are increasingly prioritized, and regulation in the near future will further focus in this area. Robotic recycling is the future: it is more efficient, cleaner, and safer than existing methods.?

How it works

Utilizing common, off-the-shelf industrial robots controlled by artificial intelligence, the ZRR system reclaims valuable raw materials from construction and demolition waste. Through the process of identifying and picking valuable raw materials that would otherwise be lost, it substantially cuts disposal costs.

Currently the ZRR only sorts metal, wood and stone. However, the system is constantly improved, and when the machine learns to pick new materials, ZenRobotics customers can buy the new ability as an upgrade.

The ZRR uses multiple sensors (visible spectrum cameras, NIR, 3D laser scanners, haptic sensors, etc) to create an accurate real-time analysis of the waste stream passing by on a conveyor belt. Based on the analysis, the system makes autonomous decisions on what objects to pick and how.

Controlling it all is the ZenBrain, a software suite that brings advanced machine-learning algorithms to industrial automation. Inspired by the operation and structure of the animal brain, the ZenBrain software allows robots to become more independent by learning efficiently from its surrounding environment.

The robot?s movements are controlled by an algorithm that mimics the cortex. The real-time, fault-tolerant, and adaptive biomimetic software is especially suited to demanding application areas, such as waste and refuse processing.

ZenRobotics? cocky, quirky and brainy-cool website invites your interest with a unique blend of humor, self-confidence in themselves, their technology and their trash-sorting system of robots.

The site also lauds the company?s guru, saying that ZenRobotics builds ?on the scientific work of Dr Harri Valpola?s neuro-robotic research group at Aalto University.? (see Valpola in video below).

These guys are fun, very smart and teach their dumpster-diving robot new tricks all the time.

*Sources: Statistics are from UNEP-ISWA State of the Waste Industry, prepared for WSSD, Basel Convention Secretariat, United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN Habitat). Municipal solid wastes (MSW) in general constitute about 14-20 percent of all wastes generated worldwide, with other waste types including construction and demolition wastes (30 percent), manufacturing (20 percent), mining and quarrying (23 percent), and all others (7 percent).