Robotic disassembly technology as a key enabler of autonomous remanufacturing

再制造是指“从客户的角度来看，将旧产品至少退回到OEM原始性能规格，并提供至少与新生产的同等产品相同的产品保修的过程”。再制造可能比重新制造更可持续，因为它可以盈利，对环境的危害也更小……再制造是一个规模可观的行业。例如，在美国，有超过7.3万家公司从事再制造。他们雇佣了35万人，总营业额为530亿美元。再制造的一个关键步骤是将退回的产品拆卸以进行再制造。由于拆卸很复杂，拆卸往往是人工执行的，而且是劳动密集型的。我们建议开发机器人技术，使拆卸可以在最少的人工干预下进行，或者由人和机器以协作的方式进行。我们的目标是促进具有成本效益的再制造这一关键步骤的自动化，以释放再制造的潜力，并使其适用于更多的公司，从而帮助扩大英国23.5亿GB的再制造业。我们的研究将从对拆卸过程的详细调查开始，目的是从根本上了解它们。这种基本的理解目前还不存在，但对于支持开发能够自主处理产品中的可变性的健壮的拆卸策略和系统是必要的。我们将学习基本的常见任务，如拧下螺丝、从具有小间隙的孔中取出销、分离压配合部件、取出弹性部件(例如O形环和卡环)以及拆卸“永久”组装的部件。我们将分析这些通用拆卸任务，以获得机器人执行这些任务时可以获得的反馈信息。我们将使用不同类型的传感器来提供适合特定任务的反馈。除了视觉感知，我们还将重点使用接触力和力矩作为衡量拆卸操作状态的手段。为了抵消不确定性，这种反馈将有助于指导机器人，避免对正在拆卸的部件造成损害。我们将有条不紊地应用所获得的基本工艺知识来创建模型、调度算法和学习工具，以实现机器人系统的自主或半自主拆卸。当拆卸任务对于一台机器来说太复杂时，我们将制定策略来规划和实施多机器人操作。我们将设计技术，在人类或机器本身难以完成工作的情况下，实现人类和机器人之间的有效协作。我们将通过实验验证这些计划、策略和技术，并将以真实产品为例给出协作机器人拆卸的公开演示。我们的多学科项目团队在机器人组装、智能系统、CAD/CAM和过程建模方面经验丰富，将得到三个行业合作伙伴(卡特彼勒、美驰和MG汽车)的支持。这些用户公司将为评估研究结果提供案例研究。两名技术翻译人员(制造技术中心和高速可持续制造研究所)将协助将实验室技术转化为可在工业规模部署的解决方案。

Remanufacturing is "the process of returning a used product to at least OEM original performance specification from the customers' perspective and giving the resultant product warranty that is at least equal to that of a newly manufactured equivalent". Remanufacturing can be more sustainable than manufacturing de novo "because it can be profitable and less harmful to the environment ...". Remanufacturing is a sizable industry. For example, in the USA, there are more than 73,000 companies engaged in remanufacturing. They employ 350,000 people and have turnovers totalling $53 billion. A key step in remanufacturing is disassembly of the returned product to be remanufactured. As it is complex, disassembly tends to be manually executed and is labour intensive. We propose to develop robotic technology allowing disassembly to be carried out with minimal human intervention or in a collaborative fashion by man and machine. We aim to facilitate the cost-effective robotisation of this critical step in remanufacturing to unlock the potential of remanufacturing and make it feasible for many more companies to adopt, thus helping to expand the UK's £2.35 Billion remanufacturing industry. Our research will start with a detailed investigation of disassembly processes aimed at fundamentally understanding them. Such a fundamental understanding does not currently exist but is necessary to support the development of robust disassembly strategies and systems that can autonomously handle variability in the product. We will study basic common tasks such as unscrewing, removal of pins from holes with small clearances, separation of press-fit components, extraction of elastic parts (e.g. O-rings and circlips) and breaking up of 'permanently' assembled components. We will analyse those generic disassembly tasks for feedback information that can be obtained while a robot is performing them. We will employ different types of sensors to provide feedback appropriate to a given task. In addition to visual sensing, we will focus on using contact forces and moments as a means to gauge the state of the disassembly operation. To counteract uncertainties, such feedback will be helpful in guiding the robot and avoiding damage to the components being taken apart. We will apply the acquired basic process knowledge methodically to create models, scheduling algorithms and learning tools to enable autonomous or semi-autonomous disassembly by robotic systems. We will develop strategies for planning and implementing multi-robot operation when the disassembly task is too complex for one machine. We will devise techniques for effective collaboration between humans and robots in cases where the work is too difficult for people or for machines on their own. We will validate these plans, strategies and techniques experimentally and will give public demonstrations of collaborative robotic disassembly using real products as examples. Our multi-disciplinary project team, with experience in robotic assembly, intelligent systems, CAD/CAM and process modelling, will be supported by three industrial partners (Caterpillar, Meritor and MG Motor). These user companies will supply case studies for evaluating the research results. Two technology translators (the Manufacturing Technology Centre and the High Speed Sustainable Manufacturing Institute) will contribute to converting laboratory-based technology into solutions ready for deployment on an industrial scale.