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Comment by stefan_ | Hacker News Reader

If you can recognize what garbage to yeet, you can already yeet it today. You don't need a terribly slow robot arm to do it.

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Yeah, maybe someone with more industry knowledge can give a better picture, but I have a hard time seeing how these robots would fit into and improve existing processes [0]. Garbage is mechanically sorted most of the way already; then IR is used to identify different plastics and air blasts are used to separate them out at dozens per second.

The Gemini robot tech is cool as heck, don't get me wrong, but it doesn't seem particularly well suited to industrial automation.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUrBBBs7yzQ

The problem with recycling is not sorting, it's that plastic being recyclable is a myth.[1]

1. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/documentary/plastic-wars/

I dont see why a Gemini robot couldn't grab 20 dark clothing items from a hamper, put them in the laundry machine, wait an hour, take them out and put them in the dryer while I was at work (thanks return to office)

Modern heatpump-based combo washer-dryers have come a long way and are great for this use-case: https://www.geappliances.com/ge/connected-appliances/ultrafa...

Maybe it could. But it won’t any time soon because it’d cost far more than you would pay for that service.

there is a security risk for having to pay for a service to wash my clothes, I would prefer no human interaction

Who's "you" here? The person at home, an employee at a recycling center, or garbage dump?

The vision models already filtering recycling today? And in a million other industrial processes?

reminds me of this rust conf talk: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=TWTDPilQ8q0

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