Aetech is a waste management solutions provider founded in May 2020 by CEO Tae-hyung Park (38).

Aetech's AI-based optical waste-sorting robot, Atron, is an industrial robot that can sort resources in place of humans in waste sorting facilities with harsh working conditions. Atron's AI has been trained on over 4.3 million data points collected from real-world waste sorting centers, enabling it to classify more than 50 types of recyclable materials, including PET, PE, PS plastics, cans, and glass bottles, based on color and usage.

"Atron is the first waste sorting AI robot to be successfully commercialized in private and public recycling sorting facilities in Korea. Thanks to this, it has achieved the highest installation record, and the data accumulated through this process has led to exceptional performance in essential technologies such as AI, robot control, and hardware design, culminating in the technology brand '3nity,' which integrates these three fields. Currently, Atron leads the market in Korea in terms of the number of items sorted per minute, the variety of waste it can process, and the volume of data collected. Particularly, data collection is a key factor in improving sorting accuracy due to the nature of waste processing, and Aetech has gathered over 4.3 million data points from 24 locations."

Park emphasized, "Atron's blower-vacuum robotic arm accurately and efficiently picks and sorts up to 96 waste items per minute with 99.3% accuracy. By adopting Atron, recycling facilities can increase sorting efficiency by two to three times compared to manual labor."

Aetech is set to launch Airo-mrf (AI Robot Material Recovery Facility), a fully automated waste recovery center, within this year. The facility will feature over 30 Atron units and a closed-loop conveyor system as its core components.

"As a secondary sorting facility, this smart factory will perform sorting operations for different types of plastic waste. Atron will be responsible for the key plastic sorting operations, while robots, rather than human workers, will handle all waste processing steps, from waste loading to the production of high-purity flakes."

Aetech is actively participating in exhibitions to showcase Atron’s capabilities in an intuitive manner and is aggressively developing brand marketing strategies to highlight its leadership in the waste-sorting robot industry

Last year, at RETECH, a waste and resource circulation industry exhibition, Aetech introduced Korea’s first AI-driven hyperspectral sorting technology through its dual-Atron system. The company also participated in Smart City Expo World Congress (SCEWC) in Spain, where it demonstrated its humanoid-type Atron robot, showcasing the future of AI-powered waste sorting. Additionally, Aetech is building a strong award portfolio to enhance brand credibility, including being the first Korean company to win the Main Prize at the WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organization) Global Awards.

In October 2023, Aetech successfully raised KRW 8.6 billion in Series A funding, bringing its total cumulative investment to KRW 12.2 billion. Currently, Aetech is conducting a Bridge Round ahead of Series B to complete its resource circulation value chain by expanding plants in two locations: Incheon and Gyeonggi.

"We are preparing to launch our fully automated waste recovery center, Airo-mrf, in Gyeongseo Resource Circulation Complex, Seo-gu, Incheon. Following this, we plan to establish a flagship facility in Gyeonggi Province, where we will independently handle waste sorting and washing processes. To ensure stable business expansion and enhance our business model, we are also raising approximately KRW 5 billion in funding for R&D expansion as well as sales and marketing efforts."

Aetech is creating synergy effects with a team composed of a former executive from a Korea’s major company with vision AI engineering backgrounds, members with over 25 years of experience in mechanical production management and design, and employees with more than 10 years of experience in business strategy and planning.

Regarding future plans, Park said, "We aim to revolutionize recycling efficiency by expanding Atron adoption across private and public waste sorting facilities and scaling up plant-level implementations. Our goal is to actively pursue exports targeting Asian countries like Vietnam, Singapore, and Hong Kong as our primary export markets, where resource circulation is a pressing issue due to limited land area, similar to Korea."

Go to original article