The KIT Gripper: A Multi-Functional Gripper for Disassembly Tasks

Abstract

We introduce a multi-functional robotic gripper equipped with a set of actions required for disassembly of electromechanical devices. The gripper consists of a robot arm with 5 degrees of freedom (DoF) for manipulation and a jaw gripper with a 1-DoF rotation joint and a 1-DoF closing joint. The system enables manipulation in 7 DoF and offers the ability to reposition objects in hand and to perform tasks that usually require bimanual systems. The sensor system of the gripper includes relative and absolute joint encoders, force and pressure sensors to provide feedback about interaction forces, a toolmounted camera for screw detection and precise placement of the tool tip using image-based visual servoing. We present a data-driven method for estimating joint torques based on the output voltage and motor speed. Further, we provide methods for teaching disassembly actions based on human demonstration, their representation as movement primitives and execution based on sensory feedback. We provide quantitative results regarding positioning and torque estimation accuracy, disassembly success rate and qualitative results regarding the successful disassembly of hard disc drives.

Challenges and Prospects of Automated Disassembly of Fuel Cells for a Circular Economy

“…As was mentioned in the previous section, several works dealt with techniques to automate the disassembly. Recent research activities consider products such as motor engines, battery systems from electric vehicles, laptops, hard disk drives, automotive water pumps, and turbochargers (Bdiwi et al, 2016;Choux et al, 2021;DiFilippo and Jouaneh, 2017;Gerbers et al, 2016;Huang et al, 2020;Klas et al, 2021;Li et al, 2020a;Rastegarpanah et al, 2021;Schmitt et al, 2011;Wegener et al, 2015;Weyrich and Wang, 2013;Zorn et al, 2022). Additional research activities have also been conducted in the 1990s/2000s.…”

“…Comprehensive overviews of automated disassembly are given in Poschmann et al (2020), Meng et al (2022), where Meng et al considers artificial intelligence approaches. Most of these approaches pursue robot-based automation for disassembly, where typical process steps include localization of joining such as screw (Bdiwi et al, 2016;DiFilippo and Jouaneh, 2017), unfastening screws, (DiFilippo and Jouaneh, 2017;Gerbers et al, 2016;Li et al, 2020a;Nave, 2003), unfastening nuts (Rastegarpanah et al, 2021) and handling (Klas et al, 2021;Schmitt et al, 2011). Works like (Choux et al, 2021;Weyrich and Wang, 2013;Zorn et al, 2022) propagate a computer version-based approach for the localization, also serving as a base for the…”