The sorter stands at a station, eyes scanning upstream, hands reaching into the stream to grab a target. Identification happens in a fraction of a second: the color and texture of a PET bottle versus HDPE, a greasy pizza box versus clean cardboard, a plastic bag tangled around a can. Items are pulled with a specific grab and flicked into the right chute without looking. Gloves are thick, the belt is wet, and the material is dirty.
There is also the removal of hazards. Propane tanks, batteries, needles, and wire that will wrap a shaft downstream all get pulled before they reach the machinery.
The head camera captures the stream from the sorter's vantage point, with the eyes leading the hands. Fixed cameras over the belt record what passes and what is pulled, synchronized with the head camera. Collection runs across full shifts at operating material recovery facilities with consented, paid sorters, cleared for commercial model training. For a researcher, each grab is an episode, labeled with the material class, the step sequence, and a success or failure tag based on whether the item landed in the right chute. Tracking of hands, items, and belt position is available. We match your schema exactly and deliver into the bucket you give us.
Request a sample and expect it within a business day.