FW-HTF-RL: Collaborative Research: The Future of Remanufacturing: Human-Robot Collaboration for Disassembly of End-of-Use Products

人类技术前沿（FW-HTF）项目的未来工作将推进有效的人机协作（HRC），以降低电子产品再制造成本并提高操作员的安全性，同时考虑到再制造环境高度复杂的非结构化性质。资源的稀缺性、环境法规以及回收有价值的材料和部件的潜在利润促使人们考虑使用后产品的回收和再制造。然而，与拆卸的劳动密集型性质相关的重大挑战是，拆卸是关键再制造操作（如再利用、维修、维护和再循环）的组成部分。该项目侧重于机器人辅助拆卸，以提高生产率，同时提高工作满意度和确保工人安全。今天，拆卸仍然是一个主要的劳动密集型过程，需要直接接触许多可能对人体健康有害的元素。这项研究将促进对人类和机器人以安全和互补的方式分配任务、合作和互动方式的基本理解。研究成果的预期效益包括提高再制造工人的生活质量，增加废旧电子材料的回收和减少浪费，创造新的制造业就业机会，减少对国外战略材料来源的依赖，以及增加国内收获的稀土元素库存。在布法罗大学（UB）和佛罗里达大学（UF）的共同努力下，多学科研究跨越了机器人、可持续设计、人为因素、数据科学和劳动经济学之间的界限。这项研究将通过教育和推广活动对工程教育和劳动力发展产生积极影响，这些活动包括为K12学生举办的研讨会、两所大学的课程开发、对研究生的及时培训以及为工业界和学术界举办的一系列研讨会。该项目的重点是推进一个综合框架，以安全、互补和互动的方式利用人类和机器人的能力，为再制造行业设计一个经济可行的拆卸系统。研究小组将在未来技术、未来工人和未来工作的背景下，通过实施五个相互依存的研究任务，对协同拆卸系统进行基础研究：(1)基于人体运动预测的工作环境监测；(2)协作机器人的规划、学习和控制；(3)不确定性下的拆卸顺序规划和探索HRC启发的设计准则；(4)人机系统集成；(5)再制造环境中HRC的经济影响建模和预测。具体的知识差距通过产品设计指南、HRC、职业安全标准和再制造劳动力市场之间的相互作用来解决。融合研究方法将允许在未来的再制造工厂中实施迭代调整和增强的协同拆卸系统。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This Future of Work at the Human Technology Frontier (FW-HTF) project will advance effective human-robot collaboration (HRC) to reduce electronics remanufacturing costs and improve operator safety, while considering the highly complex unstructured nature of the remanufacturing environment. Scarcity of resources, environmental regulations, and potential profits from salvaging valuable materials and components have motivated consideration of end-of-use product recovery and remanufacturing. However there are significant challenges related to the labor-intensive nature of disassembly, which is an integral part of critical remanufacturing operations such as reuse, repair, maintenance, and recycling. This project focuses on robot-assisted disassembly to increase productivity, while enhancing job satisfaction and ensuring worker safety. Today, disassembly is still a predominantly labor-intensive process that requires direct contact with many elements that are potentially harmful to human health. The research will advance fundamental understanding of the way humans and robots distribute tasks, cooperate, and interact in a safe and complementary manner. Among the expected benefits of the research results are improved quality of life for remanufacturing workers, increased recycling and reduced waste for used electronic materials, the creation of new manufacturing jobs, reduced dependency on foreign sources of strategic materials, and increased stocks of domestically harvested rare earth elements. The multidisciplinary research crosses the boundaries between robotics, sustainable design, human factors, data science, and labor economics, by the joint efforts between the University at Buffalo (UB) and the University of Florida (UF). The research will positively impact engineering education and workforce development through educational and outreach activities such as workshops for K12 students, course development at both institutions, timely training of graduate students, and a set of workshops for industry and academic audiences. The project is focused on advancing an integrated framework that utilizes the capabilities of both humans and robots in a safe, complementary, and interactive manner, towards designing an economically viable disassembly system for the remanufacturing industry. The research team will perform fundamental studies on collaborative disassembly systems by implementing five interdependent research tasks within the contexts of Future Technology, Future Worker, and Future Work: (1) work environment monitoring with human motion prediction, (2) planning, learning, and control for collaborative robots, (3) disassembly sequence planning under uncertainty and exploring HRC-inspired design guidelines, (4) human-robotics system integration, and (5) modeling and prediction of economic impacts of HRC in remanufacturing environments. Specific knowledge gaps are addressed by mutual interactions among product design guidelines, HRC, occupational safety standards, and remanufacturing labor market. The convergent research approach will allow iteratively adjusted and enhanced collaborative disassembly systems to be implemented in future remanufacturing factories.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.