Aetech CEO Park Taehyeong (left) on July 12 receives a Global Award from the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) at a ceremony hosted by WIPO headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland.

By Koh Hyunjeong
Photos = Aetech

The "era of global boiling" has come. More natural disasters are occurring due to climate change such as abnormally high heat, bone-chilling cold waves and droughts around the globe. 

Thus climate tech is desperately needed to slow the speed of climate change and reduce greenhouse gas and carbon emissions.

Amid the call of the times, the domestic company Aetech has received the spotlight for developing an artificial intelligence (AI)-based waste-sorting robot to change the structure of the resource circulation market into an innovative and cutting-edge automated plant and improve the efficiency of resource recycling. This startup is the country's first to earn the Global Award of the World Intellectual Property Organization under the United Nations.

Aetech's purpose is to achieve "perfect automation" of waste-sorting facilities to create a new value chain for waste processing worldwide and build an "urban mine" to extract useful resources from trash. 

People living in the smart city Aetech wishes to create need not worry about waste sorting because robots can do everything ranging from sorting garbage to producing recycled materials. 

Korea.net on Aug. 19 visited the company's office in Seoul to see Atron, a robot Aetech designed to sort waste. Staff computers showed images of all sorts of waste of all sizes and shapes. Data labeling was conducted to improve RGB sensors and image recognition technology. 

Data labeling is the task of assigning values in advance to data used in deep learning and requires concentration and meticulousness. Though it seems like a simple process, it is tougher than thought because the mixture of household waste with that of food or distorted shapes create many variables.

Aetech Chief Strategy Officer Ryu Jae Ho poses with Atron, his company's AI-based optical sorting robot.

Aetech has a team of experts in fields like electrical engineering, design, robotics, AI and data engineering who develop both hardware and software. 

Chief Strategy Officer Ryu Jae Ho said, "We are strong in technological development with 10 domestic patent registrations, 18 patent applications and seven international applications under patent cooperation treaties."

His tone and facial expressions showed his pride and confidence in the company's technology that is both innovative and globally competitive.

The AI applied to Atron is said to learn 2.8 million pieces of data, enabling the robot to sort up to 96 pieces of waste per minute with 99.3% accuracy. It can sort 43 kinds of waste and recognize by color that made of polypropylene, which is mostly used in disposable food containers.

Ryu demonstrated Atron at the first-floor workshop. Staff were busy making robots for delivery and preparing for the upcoming International Trade Fair for Waste Management, Recycling & Environmental Technologies late this month at KINTEX in Goyang, Gyeonggi-do Province, and the Smart City Expo World Congress in November in Barcelona, Spain. 

The work process of Atron begins with its recognition unit detecting waste in real time and collecting data. The analysis unit checks the type and characteristics of waste, the conversion unit selects items and filters data, and the sorting unit has the robot follow orders to sort waste. 

The entire process is monitored in real time by the monitoring unit. Atron picks up waste in a speedy and accurate manner with its blower vacuum arms, which requires low management cost.

Atron is a waste-sorting robot developed by the domestic startup Aetech.

With eyes beaming with ambition, Ryu said, "Going beyond a robot maker, our company will grow into a plant-level operator that runs recycling sorting facilities and does design consulting."

Aetech earned last year Series A funding of KRW 8.6 billion for cumulative investment of KRW 12.2 billion. The company is doing a bridging round of investment to secure another KRW 8 billion or more this year.  

Leading the innovation of the resource recycling ecosystem with AI robots, Aetech presents a new framework for resource circulation to create a sustainable future.

hjkoh@korea.kr