A case study in human–robot collaboration in the disassembly of press-fitted components

TLDR

Human–robot collaborative disassembly reduces uncertainty in end‑of‑life product condition, accommodates unpredictable return volumes and remanufacturing variability, and targets the critical first step of disassembly. The study introduces a new active‑compliance method for disassembling press‑fitted components and demonstrates it through a case study of an automotive water pump. The method employs a collaborative industrial robot with active compliance control working alongside a human operator to separate press‑fitted parts. The case study confirms the feasibility of the proposed human–robot collaborative disassembly approach.

Abstract

Human–robot collaborative disassembly is an approach designed to mitigate the effects of uncertainties associated with the condition of end-of-life products returned for remanufacturing. This flexible semi-autonomous approach can also handle unpredictability in the frequency and numbers of such returns as well as variance in the remanufacturing process. This article focusses on disassembly, which is the first and arguably the most critical step in remanufacturing. The article presents a new method for disassembling press-fitted components using human–robot collaboration based on the active compliance provided by a collaborative robot. The article first introduces the concepts of human–robot collaborative disassembly and outlines the method of active compliance control. It then details a case study designed to demonstrate the proposed method. The study involved the disassembly of an automotive water pump by a collaborative industrial robot working with a human operator to take apart components that had been press-fitted together. The results show the feasibility of the proposed method.