Events

Date: 25 September 2025   Time: 14:00 - 15:00

Location: Engineering Building G27 E1 4NS Map 

Title: Humanoid Robotics for Waste Recycling and Management: A Technical Overview

Speaker: Dr. Namdar Baghaei-Yazdi, ESG Director, TeknTrash Robotics

Abstract: Global waste exceeds 2.3 billion tonnes annually, with less than 20% recycled. Manual sorting remains hazardous and inefficient, driving the need for robotic solutions. This talk presents a humanoid robotic system, developed by TeknTrash Robotics, integrating dexterous manipulation with AI-driven perception for complex waste streams. A pilot study with Sharp Skips UK showed throughput gains (+18%), reduced error rates (12% → 4%), and improved worker safety. Key technical aspects—system architecture, computer vision, and adaptive grippers—will be discussed, alongside challenges in perception under contamination, latency, and scalability. The presentation concludes with future research directions, including edge AI, multi-robot collaboration, and autonomous humanoid waste sorting for circular economy applications.

Speaker Biography: Dr. Namdar Baghaei-Yazdi is the ESG Director of TeknTrash Robotics and the Managing Director of Biotech Consultants Limited (BTCL). Namdar has 35 years of experience in Industrial Biotechnology R&D and commercialisation, especially in the fields of biofuels and biobased platform chemicals, oil and gas microbiology and biodesalination. Winner of 1993 prestigious CEREAL PRIZE (Le Prix Céréalier) awarded by French Cereal Organisations (Céréaliers de France) and approved by the European Commission and the European Parliament for research into non-food applications of agricultural crops. Namdar has his name on several publications and patents. He has a B.Sc. degree in Microbiology from King's College London and a Ph.D. in Biotechnology from Imperial College London. He is also a Visiting Lecturer and Industrial Research Fellow at the University of Westminster (London, UK) and a Visiting Lecturer at the University of Bedfordshire (Luton, UK).