Robotics takes centre stage in UAE’s fight against waste

The entire universe is the classroom that everyone must be given the chance to explore, for the critical thinking and un-bias, towards a more unified and kinder progressive society.

Early this week and over the Main Hall and Sports Complex of the 28-year-old American University of Sharjah (AUS), 111 students, guided by their like-minded professors and support assistants, displayed their interpretations of gadgets that may one day be mass produced for one of the world's gripping challenges: waste management.

Imagine an assortment of moving arms, wheeled sorters and even humongous water sweepers being set up and then remotely controlled to identify objects that must be thrown into colour-coded bins.

These were out of the cleverness and open-mindedness of the crème-dela-crème among the original two-to-six-member 100 teams representing 22 universities in Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah, Ajman, and Ras Al Khaimah.

According to the United Nations Environment Programme "Global Waste Management Outlook 2024," the universal $361 billion spent on waste management combined with the "hidden costs of pollution, poor health and climate change from poor waste disposal practices," in 2020 would almost double to a staggering $640.3 billion" in 2050.

"This is the main idea and the purpose of the 'Emirates Robotics Competition'," said Dr. Mohammad Jaradat, among the five Competition Organising Committee members.

"That is to encourage undergraduate students to advance the knowledge they acquire inside classrooms by applying these to real-life problems which are outside of their classrooms that need to be solved because there has been a gap which need to be bridged," added the AUS-Mechanical Engineering professor that opted to specialise in mechatronic system design, robotics, artificial intelligence (AI) system.

Jaradat explained further: "No need to fear. Autonomous robotics is revolutionising industries by enhancing efficiency, precision and scalability. In waste management, robotics can optimize sorting, collection and processing, reducing environmental impact and improving resource recovery. This competition provides students with a platform to refine their technical skills and push the boundaries of intelligent automation and innovation. We would be helped in our daily tasks."

Among the grateful for the three-year-old competition, the originator of which is the Dubai Future Labs (DFL) of the Dubai Future Foundation, into avant-garde capacity-building initiatives, were Heriot-Watt University Robotics Autonomous Interactive Systems graduating student Mohammed Ibrahim and Computer Science-Artificial Intelligence graduating student Ziyaan Rashid Mir.

They who invented the Robotics Automation for Debris Identification & Navigational Tasks (Radiant Project) Arm said that DFL alongside its annual partners - and for 2025 - were the AUS, Khalifa University-Abu Dhabi and Rochester Institute of Technology-Dubai (RIT-Dubai) - "are doing a great job in creating opportunities for research even as we gain wisdom from the elder generations. This is a great venue to meet great minds."

Jaradat said that Engineering is one area whereby people are trained to become problem solvers to even the minutest. From the RIT-Dubai were sophomore to junior Electrical Engineering students from Ethiopia and Syria: Ibrahim Eissa Alhaier, Solomon Mikit Norkueh, Getacheus Weidie, Mabrie Alemuew, and Leui Alemu.

They who came up with the Generative AI-Powered Arm called "Manipulators" complete with an "enormous data base to process the kind of trash it detects and picks up with the camera as the main perception pipeline," unanimously said that efficiency is the outcome of delegation as opposed to being the one-man-team and that education is the exposure to all the realities and their consequent solutions.

Representing the host university AUS were the lady inventors of the Trashformer wheeled sorter: Salsabeel Elsharkawy, junior Electrical Engineering; Noof Alzarooni, junior Electrical Engineering; Leen AlAbueh, sophomore Electrical Engineering; Lugain Awad, sophomore Electrical Engineering; Amira Azim, sophomore Computer Engineering; and Massa Al Deirani, junior Computer Engineering.

Thankful they were for the support of the AUS administration and faculty, particularly to their adviser Electrical Engineering Department assistant professor Dr Bara Emran and Teaching assistant Amer Aljuran, an AUS alumnus taking up Masters in Mechatronics. Thrilled they were allowed to use the Mechatronics (combination of mechanical-electronics-computer engineering systems) Lab.

It was Elsharkawy who masterminded their application in the competition that gave them three months to create a waste management prototype.

The 2025 winners were the Team Armpicks from Middlesex University, Waste Sorting Challenge; Team Synergy, Manipal University of Higher Education-Dubai Campus, Autonomous Ground Cleaning Challenge; and SeaCat, Amity University Dubai, Water Surface Cleaning Challenge.