Automatic disassembly system architecture for end-of-life vehicles

Demands of society (environmental concerns, climate change, etc.) and the legal frame (European Directive 2000/53/CE, national and local laws, etc.) are forcing manufacturing industry to reuse and recycle products at the end of their life for ecological and economical reasons. Therefore, in order to fulfil these demands, the design of automatic disassembly cells for end-of-life products is an imperative issue. The aim of this paper is to design a flexible architecture (control architecture, operations definition, trajectories planning, etc.) of a robotic disassembly cell which works totally automated and performs some of the operations needed for decontaminating a vehicle. This cell is reproduced (on the laboratory scale) with robots using pneumatic tools for cutting, drilling, unscrewing and handling to carry out different operations. Furthermore, these robots have sensors (vision systems, force and torque sensors, etc.) for monitoring and controlling some of these operations.