Hiro Robotics: for the recycling and treatment of electronic waste

Hiro Robotics is a Genoa-based startup founded by Davide Labolani, Michele Olivieri, Tomaso Manca, and Jacopo Lottero. Its mission is to adapt technologies such as robotics and artificial intelligence to the disassembly and treatment of electronic waste. The initial idea was to create an innovative vision system: a sophisticated camera that industrial robots could use to interact with the surrounding world more precisely by capturing moving images and videos.

What is Hiro Robotics?

Hiro Robotics creates and adapts robotics, computer vision, and artificial intelligence technologies commonly used in industry to apply them to the disassembly and treatment of electronic waste. The goal is to revolutionize the way this waste is currently treated, making the process safer and more efficient with the help of robots and human operators working together. A positive side effect of this innovation is the reduction of electronic waste that is dumped in fields or exported to developing countries, where it is often assembled manually, with devastating social and environmental consequences.

Hiro Robotics has developed two specific solutions. The first is a system for disassembling televisions that automatically and precisely recovers rare materials from the printed circuit boards of televisions. The second is the scanning and separation of printed circuit boards. This is a sophisticated machine that uses artificial intelligence to examine the circuit boards and then uses a spider robot to separate the rare materials based on their quantity. This solution improves material processing flows and increases the value of recycled waste. The company can see which rare materials are present in the circuit boards using artificial intelligence, facilitating efficient and sustainable recovery and separation.

Hiro Robotics focuses on sustainability. Its goal is to apply robotics and artificial intelligence to create something tangible and real, such as improving the process of disposing of electrical and electronic waste in a safer and more sustainable way.

Cover image source: LinkedIn

The project is a candidate for the 2024 Non Sprecare Award, in the Startup section. To submit your project, follow the instructions provided. here.

Read also:

• BrainBox AI: Artificial Intelligence to Reduce Energy Waste in Apartment Buildings
• EcoFarm Storti: Sustainable Agriculture with Precision Technologies
• Marco Bianchi: The Chef Who Teaches How to Avoid Food Waste
• Itlas: How wood scraps become furniture and design objects. 

Sign up for our newsletter to stay up-to-date. Click here!