The name Oscorp may spark recognition among comic book enthusiasts. In the Spider-Man universe, Oscorp is the powerful corporation often portrayed as the antagonist. But for Ani Goswami, founder of Australian start-up Oscorp Energy, the name represents something entirely different.
“We are not an evil corporation, we exist in a parallel universe where we do good for the world,” Goswami said.
That desire to create positive change is driving the company’s development of Vision OS, an artificial intelligence-powered operating system that gives waste and recycling facilities insight into their operations. The technology forms part of a broader ambition for the business.
“Our vision for the company is to enable fully autonomous waste facilities of tomorrow,” Goswami said. “AI makes all the decisions. It just processes waste fully autonomously. That is the vision that we are working towards as a company.”
Rather than physically sorting materials, Vision OS functions as the intelligence layer across a facility, continuously monitoring what is happening on the processing line.
“This vision product is essentially installed with sensors, lights, and computers with a graphics processing unit (GPU),” Goswami said. “It will track and trace all materials on your conveyor belt.”
The system can be installed as a single unit at a critical processing point or deployed across multiple locations throughout a facility, creating a picture of material movement from arrival through to final output.
“You could pretty much track and trace what material is coming in, what material is going out, your recovery rate, your contamination rates and whether there’s any inefficiencies,” Goswami said. “It’s pretty much a digital twin of your facility.”
He said the platform goes beyond simply collecting data, allowing operators to identify bottlenecks, understand contamination sources and make operational changes that improve recovery performance before problems escalate.
With increasing expectations around reporting and transparency, technologies capable of delivering reliable operational data are becoming increasingly valuable for the waste and recycling sector.
“One of the standards says the recycling facility shall have in place systems and procedures to monitor, record, and report the flow of materials in and out of facilities,” Ani says. “This is a perfect fit for tracking and tracing materials in and out of a facility in a completely autonomous manner.”
The information generated by the system also has commercial value. Operators can identify contamination in aluminium streams, detect equipment issues that affect recovery, and use verified data during customer audits or contract negotiations.
Because contamination levels fluctuate depending on material streams, collection areas, seasonal influences and consumer behaviour, maintaining consistent quality can be challenging. Vision OS is designed to identify those trends, allowing operators to reduce contamination and recover more valuable resources.
The same applies to materials that frequently escape recovery altogether. PET, metals, cardboard and other recyclable commodities can unintentionally end up in residual waste streams, reducing both recovery rates and profitability. By identifying where those losses occur, facilities can improve performance and strengthen audit outcomes.
Alongside operational efficiency, safety remains a key focus for Oscorp Energy. Lithium-ion battery fires continue to pose significant risks across the industry, and the company believes Vision OS can provide another level of protection.
The technology combines conventional vision systems with X-ray capability, allowing it to identify hazardous items concealed beneath layers of waste that would otherwise remain invisible.
“It will penetrate within 50 to 70 centimetres thickness of waste, and it will keep an eye on all things flammable or hazardous,” he said. “As soon as a hazard is detected, the system can trigger the response best suited to the facility’s risk profile and operating requirements. For facilities with a low risk appetite, this may involve automatically stopping the conveyor to allow safe manual removal. Alternatively, the system can activate a robotic picker, air-jet ejection system or another mechanical separation mechanism to remove the hazardous or flammable item before it travels further downstream.
“A human cannot see what’s underneath the cardboard or plastic on a sorting belt. There might be a very risky battery under that waste that humans can’t see, but X-ray can.”
Although the technology appears well suited to waste and recycling, the sector was not where the company began. Goswami’s background is in battery research, and Oscorp Energy initially concentrated on battery recycling applications before recognising a much broader opportunity.
“But then we uncovered this problem that the waste industry was facing, which was a much larger problem to solve,” Goswami said. “There was a logical technology fit.”
With commercial deployment approaching, Oscorp Energy is now focused on demonstrating the technology to the market. Potential customers and industry partners are being invited to visit the company’s Queensland robotics facility to see the system operating firsthand.
For a company sharing its name with a fictional corporation, Goswami says the objective is firmly rooted in practical outcomes.
“We want to show the industry that this technology is not too good to be true,” Goswami said. “It’s reality.”