Under the Intelligent Disassembly of Electronics for Remanufacturing and Recycling (iDEAR) project, the team is aiming to combine robotics and artificial intelligence (AI) in its bid to create a system for automated and nondestructive disassembly processes leading to a closed-loop waste management system.
Source: Fraunhofer IFF
The goal is to create a system capable of handling all types of e-waste such as computers, microwaves and home appliances, among others.
Key to the project is a reliance on both robots and AI for disassembling these electronics, beginning with the delivery of e-waste, followed by sorting, identifying and then condition analysis.
At the condition analysis stage, the types, condition and product faults of the electronics are assessed using optical sensor systems and 3D cameras featuring AI-powered algorithms.
Next, the scientists would define its disassembly sequence, thereby instructing the software as to whether a complete or partial disassembly is necessary for recovering valuable components.
At this stage, the robot would then be tasked with carrying out the disassembly process, performing tasks such as lifting, cutting, extracting, localizing, repositioning, releasing, moving levers, bending, breaking and cutting wires — all of which would be accomplished autonomously.
So far, the scientists have built a demonstrator capable of performing various subprocesses, with the ultimate goal of interconnecting these subprocesses to create one demonstrator capable of executing entire automated disassembly processes.
In the lab, the current demonstrator successfully removed a motherboard from a computer.
