AMP Robotics' Cortex DRS is designed to make recycling more efficient and economical.

Louisville, Colo.-based AMP Robotics launched its Cortex Dual-Robot System (DRS) in May 2019. It is an expansion of its high-speed recycling robots guided by the Neuron platform, which uses computer vision and machine learning to recognize items of different shapes, as well as materials such as metal, paper, and plastic.

The AMP Cortex DRS uses two robots to pick and place materials for recycling around the clock at up to 160 pieces per minute -- twice as fast as human workers. The system can be easily added to existing recycling facilities, and its precision results in a purer stream of post-consumer materials and construction waste.

In September 2019, Single Stream Recyclers LLC (SSR) in Sarasota, Fla., added eight AMP systems to its existing six for sorting fiber in the largest deployment of its kind to date. SSR was able to increase its productivity while moving people to higher value-added roles.