Some (most?) of these aren't really AI-based at all. For example. traditional optical sorters typically rely on the reflectivity of materials at one or a few laser wavelengths directed onto the material.
The mapping between sensor signals and material types is usually hardcoded from laboratory test results.
Sure. What they will call AI [an unspecified number of years in the future] will be compared similarly the the SOTA AI models.
For long time the term "artificial intelligence" has just gone out of favour, but I do remember the days where a good AI research lab had a bunch of symbolics lisp machines
I mean that we have visual recognition systems that do not use any kind of machine learning whatsoever and those are the majority of systems in use at industrial scale.
Laser interferometry and DCT image distance, primarily.
Haha I just came up with that off the hip (never heard of, seen, or even contemplated sorting garbage before) because the idea that this needs articulation and graspers is the height of "we're VC funded and don't care about anything except runway". Laughable.