Danu Robotics
Edinburgh maker of AI-guided recycling sorting robots; its two-arm H.E.R.O. Series 2 retrofits MRF lines in under 1 m of conveyor and installs in a day.
Danu Robotics is a Scottish company that designs and builds AI-guided picking robots for materials recovery facilities (MRFs), the plants where mixed household and commercial recycling is separated into saleable fractions. It is based at the National Robotarium on the Heriot-Watt University campus in Edinburgh and has added workshop space elsewhere in the city. The company was founded by Xiaoyan (Amy) Ma, an engineer, and has built a team covering hardware, robotics, computer vision, software and project management.
Its product line is the H.E.R.O. series (High-performance, Environmentally friendly, Reconfigurable Operator). The current model, H.E.R.O. Series 2, is a modular multi-arm picking system built on a patented gantry construction and designed to be retrofitted onto existing sorting lines: the two-arm unit needs less than one metre of conveyor length, can be installed in under a day, and is fitted with safety guarding when it works next to human pickers. A proprietary computer-vision and AI identification system outlines target objects on the belt so the grippers can pick them, including from dirty mixed waste streams rather than only pre-sorted lines, and the models are updated as more data and sensors are added. Grippers, the main wear part, can be changed in about 20 minutes. The company does not publish a picks-per-minute rating; a pick is logged only when the item lands in the destination bin, and the system records picks per day for performance reporting, material traceability and Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) data. Danu states that about 90 percent of the hardware is itself recyclable.
Glasgow City Council's Blochairn recycling depot is named as a beta test partner, and the company says first robots were delivered to development partners in January 2025. Reporting in October 2026 cited 500,000 US dollars in signed contracts and a pipeline of more than 200 prospective customers, with Europe and North America as target markets, and Danu was selected for Startup Battlefield 200 at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 in San Francisco.
The company names Octopus Ventures and Sustainable Ventures as investors; Sustainable Ventures invested in 2023 and admitted Danu to its accelerator. Ma won a Scottish EDGE award carrying a GBP 75,000 grant in 2022, and the company took part in the University of Edinburgh Venture Builder Incubator and AI Accelerator. Other supporters listed on its website include Scottish Enterprise, Edinburgh Innovations, the Bayes Centre, the National Manufacturing Institute Scotland, Michelin Scotland Innovation Park, EIT Climate and the Recycled Materials Association Scotland, and it reports an Earthshot Prize shortlisting and a Let's Recycle award nomination.
Primary type & automation activities this supplier delivers:
H.E.R.O. Series 2
Modular two-arm AI-vision gantry robot that picks recyclables from mixed waste on existing MRF conveyors.
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Contact Danu Robotics
WEBSITE
https://www.danurobotics.com/HEADQUARTERS
United Kingdom
Company Facts
Founded
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Primary Role
Manufacturer
Company Size
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Primary Region
Europe
Annual Sales
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Funding Stage
Early-Stage VC
Funding Total
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