Making recycling easy with reliable annotation quality control
Recycling tech leader AMP Robotics chose CloudFactory when its growth outpaced the capacity of its internal team to annotate quality data. Our managed workforce leads quality control (QC) efforts for AMP’s data labeling efforts while also supporting model outputs and defining new segments.
Robotics
Colorado, USA
101-250
95%+
Accuracy Achieved
3x
Increase in Monthly Project Hours
2.5x
Increase in Label Classifications
AMP Robotics is a leader in the recycling technology industry, building AI-based robotics systems that sort recyclable material at a fraction of the cost of current technology. While a student at Caltech, founder Matanya Horowitz recognized both the vast untapped potential of computer vision as well as the gap in innovation within the recycling industry. Founding AMP Robotics was his response.
As important as recycling is to the sustainability of our planet, the challenge of doing it efficiently and cost-effectively has evaded the industry. While manual labor has been the mainstay, there are limitations to human perception that AI can overcome. There is immense potential for profitability by integrating this technology, however, it can only happen with high-quality annotated data being fed to the neural networks.
Beginning as a small, cross-functional team, many of AMP Robotics’ team members had to share the load of data annotating. However, as the company began growing, the need for additional help became evident. AMP then took the step that many fast-expanding tech companies do and began hiring temp workers through an agency. “But we found that it was expensive, and the quality of the annotations just wasn’t there,” explains Ben Clint, AMP Robotics Data Acquisition Manager. “College students were brought in and trained, but the problem is that part-time, unfocused work is not the best thing to get really high-quality results.”
CloudFactory was able to consistently give us really high quality, review-level results that we could feed directly into our neural network tracking….We've been working with CloudFactory for a few years now and it's not going to change.
Ben Clint
AMP Robotics Data Acquisition Manager
Initially, AMP Robotics had a data pipeline where the CloudFactory team and another offshore team were doing annotations and reviewing each other's work. That quickly turned into the other team doing the annotations while CloudFactory leads quality control (QC) review of the labeling work. Our partnership has grown even further to include reviewing of model outputs and helping to vet new areas for development.
“CloudFactory added value beyond the agreed-upon tasks, helping AMP Robotics self-improve at every step,” explains Clint. In essence, the CloudFactory team served as a springboard to improve processes within AMP Robotics itself. “There's a level here where there's honest back-and-forth feedback,” adds Clint. “So instead of us just giving a directive and needing it to be done, we hear if there is something untenable or that could be improved in any of these processes, and we get better for it.”
“The [CloudFactory] team’s flexibility has been fantastic,” says Clint. “And they usually let us know if something is reasonable to move to like production levels. The advantage is that we can clarify the edges of these new categories with CloudFactory as they work on it. And we've had a few times in the past where this has actually redefined new labels as they come in to be more easily identified.”
As part of this evolutionary relationship, CloudFactory’s added value didn’t end there. According to Clint, “It’s been good always having a veteran on the CloudFactory data team, and new people coming in don’t take long to get up to speed. We use the CloudFactory team for more than just annotation. We’ve begun using them for one-off tasks as well, like the vetting of new projects.” CloudFactory’s model ensures that regardless of turnover, there will be no loss of quality, context, or knowledge. This stability is what helps our clients maintain their growth momentum.
The results speak for themselves. Since beginning work with CloudFactory, AMP Robotics has expanded from 20 to 50 labels. “A lot of what we've done with CloudFactory in building out these new label sets wouldn't really have been possible without you guys,” says Clint. “Another thing is we've broken into new industries. And a lot of the upfront vetting of these new label sets, again, has fallen to CloudFactory, It’s really helped in terms of scaling.”
In terms of quality, Clint says that CloudFactory reviews have resulted in “above 95% accuracy in the labels. You were able to pretty consistently give us really high quality, review-level results that we could feed directly into our neural network tracking.”
“We've been working with CloudFactory for a few years now and it's not going to change,” says Clint. We can’t wait to see how this partnership evolves in the years to come.
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