Through end-of-use product recovery, the remaining value of products and components with critical materials can be fed back into product life-cycles by recycling to recover material value or by remanufacturing or reuse to retain the functionality of individual components. The capability of dismantling operations is a key factor in controlling the volume and flow of critical materials in these reverse feedback cycles. An inability to achieve certain levels of volume or flow in feedback cycles from end-of-use products can risk the efficiency and profitability of recycling, remanufacturing, and reuse. Dismantling systems face a significant challenge to achieving large-scale operations due to uncertainty in end-of-use product quality, quantity, and timing. In order to manage these uncertainties efficiently, dismantling systems must be flexible and automated to achieve large-scale volumes.
In this webinar Dr. Jeremy L. Rickli will present and discuss a cyber-physical architecture for utilizing human-robot interaction via collaborative robots (Cobot) to train automated dismantling systems. Results will be presented demonstrating how dismantling information is extracted from a human-cobot dismantling training work-cell that can then be automatically distributed to individual stations of a larger, automated dismantling system. The webinar will also provide a brief overview of collaborative robotic technology and its potential applications in industrial and research environments.