Waste Sorting Automation with Visual Sensor and RFID

The quantity of domestic wastes is constantly increasing, resulting on overload of wastes. Recycling became imperative for ecologic and economical considerations in order to apply circular economy rules. In general, humans are recruited in waste sorting plants for performing the dangerous and tedious sorting tasks. The automation is, thus, necessary. This paper deals with the problem of waste sorting automation. The proposed solution consists of waste recognition and classification using YOLOv8, and human presence detection using RFID (Radio frequency Identification) tags. The proposed solution is validated in simulation. The virtual robot performs a task in order to simulate the behavior of a real robot with high fidelity, depending on the information coming from the RFID tags and a visual sensor.