A high-speed robotic disassembly system for the recycling and reuse of cellphones

Abstract

Hundreds of millions of cellphones are thrown away every year, creating a market for large-scale recycle and reuse. We present a low-cost robot that can disassemble cellphone components in a nondestructive way and be distributed widely. The goal of this robot is to accelerate the recovery of millions of dollars worth of components and materials from the disposed cellphones. The disassembly of cellphones was reduced to primitive operations and the most important was determined to be prying. The prototype was tested on disconnecting flat flexible cable connectors which were universal and traditionally difficult for machines to remove. Multiple end effectors were designed, and different combinations of end effectors and motions were compared showing the optimum combination for prying is determined to be a compliant tool with a moving pivot motion. It allowed high success rate, minimal damage and good robustness against positioning errors. The prying and positioning of the machine was modeled and compared to experimental data to guide design and allow for generalization. Lastly, a decision-making system was designed specifically to work at high speeds and with multiple types of uncertainty.