Affordable and modular robotic disassembly systems (EPSRC IAA )
Yongjing Wang (Principal Investigator)
Value: EPSRC IAA Follow on rate
Duration: 4/2023-11/2023
Abstract:
Disassembly is a key step in remanufacturing and recycling. The status quo of disassembly for many consumer products is economically unjustifiable, mainly because of a lack of enabling technologies for the automation of disassembly. Also, some products, such as lithium-ion batteries from electric vehicles
and medical equipment, involve significant health and safety risks in disassembly (e.g. leakage and explosion), making disassembly expensive and difficult to scale up.
In this project, we aim to significantly reduce the cost of robotic technologies by improving the design of the disassembly robot system to create a general-use low-cost robotic disassembly robot station (e.g. a single robot cell) that can be used for *** and *** – the two major disassembly operations to disassemble common consumer products.
AMRD aims to develop a STANDARDISED robotic disassembly work cell that can be adopted in a variety of disassembly tasks with easy programming. It offers significantly more functionalities and a higher level of automation than the basic disassembly equipment, and significantly lower costs than the customised
solutions. Being standardised means the proposed robotic disassembly product can be mass-duplicated and mass-produced which will pave the way for scale-up.