China’s First Embodied Robot for Waste Sorting Goes to Work

On September 22, PICKINGMAN, China’s first embodied robot for waste sorting, officially began operations at the Municipal Solid Waste Integrated Treatment Center in Liaobu Town, Dongguan. Its deployment also marked the commissioning of Dongguan’s first AI-powered sorting line for resource recovery from mixed municipal solid waste.

The project was jointly developed by Guangdong DataBeyond Technology Co., Ltd. (“DataBeyond”) and Guangdong Dongshi Environment Co., Ltd. (“Dongshi Environment”). By integrating AI optical sorters and embodied robots into municipal solid waste sorting and resource recovery, the two companies are supporting Dongguan’s “Zero-Waste City” initiative and the integration of its municipal waste collection and recyclable recovery networks.

100 Embodied Waste-Sorting Robots Set for Deployment in Dongguan

At 3:30 p.m. that day, a launch ceremony marking the commissioning of Dongguan’s first AI-powered sorting line for municipal solid waste resource recovery was held in Liaobu. Attendees included representatives from the city’s industry and information technology, commerce, urban management, science and technology, and investment promotion departments; officials from Liaobu, Dongcheng, and Songshan Lake; and representatives from Dongshi Group, Dongshi Environment, Dongshi Urban Services, and DataBeyond.

During the ceremony, Ye Dawen, General Manager of Dongshi Urban Services, and Mo Zhuoya, Chairman of DataBeyond, signed a cooperation agreement covering 100 embodied robots. The agreement marks an important step in their collaboration on the large-scale deployment of embodied robots and resource recovery from mixed municipal solid waste.

The two parties will combine their strengths in application scenarios, operational management, intelligent sorting technology, and robotics R&D. Their ongoing collaboration will span product applications, market development, technology improvements, and industry partnerships to advance the deployment of embodied robots in mixed municipal solid waste sorting.

The agreement is reportedly the world’s largest single order to date for embodied robots in mixed municipal solid waste sorting, marking DataBeyond’s transition from demonstration projects to large-scale deployment.

China Debut: DataBeyond’s Embodied Robot Enables Full-Stream Municipal Solid Waste Sorting

Located near Jinfu Second Road in the Tangchun Village Industrial Zone, the Liaobu waste transfer station has a total floor area of 7,616.43 square meters.

Previously, sorting all low-value recyclables from 50 tonnes of mixed municipal solid waste required four workers operating continuously for eight hours. Today, with China’s first AI-powered mixed municipal solid waste sorting line equipped with embodied robots, the station can complete fully automated, full-stream sorting of 50 tonnes of waste in four hours without manual sorting, achieving approximately 35% waste reduction and 25% resource recovery.

Making its debut in China, PICKINGMAN is a 1.2-meter-tall embodied robot specifically designed for mixed municipal solid waste environments. It delivers up to 3,600 picks per hour, with 14 degrees of freedom across its two arms and IP65-rated dust and water protection for the entire machine. Its coordinated “brain” and “cerebellum” systems support stable, continuous 24/7 operation, freeing frontline workers from sorting tasks in dirty, odor-intensive waste processing environments.

The Liaobu station’s full-stream sorting model provides a reliable feedstock foundation for the future higher-value use of low-value recyclables. It also advances mixed municipal solid waste treatment in China from Version 1.0, based on conventional landfilling, and Version 2.0, focused on incineration for waste reduction, toward Version 3.0: intelligent sorting and comprehensive resource recovery.

Dongshi Environment × DataBeyond

Pioneering a New Model for Full-Stream Sorting at Waste Transfer Stations in China

On March 16 this year, Dongshi Environment and DataBeyond signed a strategic cooperation agreement covering full-stream sorting at municipal waste transfer stations, resource recovery from aged waste, and innovation in solid waste treatment models. The partnership aims to establish a benchmark for integrating AI, embodied robotics, and municipal solid waste resource recovery.

Mo Zhuoya, Chairman of DataBeyond, stated that the Liaobu demonstration project features China’s first AI-powered sorting line integrating embodied robots specifically developed for mixed municipal solid waste applications. It is also China’s first demonstration project to achieve fully unmanned sorting at an operational waste transfer station.

DataBeyond: From Dongguan to the World

The successful commissioning of the Liaobu AI-powered mixed municipal solid waste sorting project demonstrates the combined strengths of Dongshi Environment and DataBeyond. It validates a practical approach to intelligent mixed municipal solid waste management and introduces a new model for resource recovery.

DataBeyond will continue to advance intelligent sorting technologies and drive industry upgrades through innovation, providing replicable and scalable system solutions for mixed municipal solid waste reduction and resource recovery worldwide.

Selected overseas resource recovery projects already implemented by DataBeyond include:

Mixed Municipal Solid Waste Resource Recovery Project — Russia

Mixed Municipal Solid Waste Resource Recovery Project — Japan

Mixed Municipal Solid Waste Resource Recovery Project — India

Mixed Municipal Solid Waste Resource Recovery Project — South Korea

Aged Waste Resource Recovery Project — Malaysia

Mixed Municipal Solid Waste Resource Recovery Project — Italy