Disassembly Automation: Automated Systems with Cognitive Abilities PDF
Preview Disassembly Automation: Automated Systems with Cognitive Abilities
Sustainable Production, Life Cycle Engineering and Management Series Editors: Christoph Herrmann, Sami Kara Supachai Vongbunyong Wei Hua Chen Disassembly Automation Automated Systems with Cognitive Abilities Sustainable Production, Life Cycle Engineering and Management Series editors Christoph Herrmann, Braunschweig, Germany Sami Kara, Sydney, Australia Modern production enables a high standard of living worldwide through products and services. Global responsibility requires a comprehensive integration of sustain- able development fostered by new paradigms, innovative technologies, methods and tools as well as business models. Minimizing material and energy usage, adapting material and energy flows to better fit natural process capacities, and changing con- sumption behaviour are important aspects of future production. A life cycle per- spective and an integrated economic, ecological and social evaluation are essential requirements in management and engineering. This series will focus on the issues and latest developments towards sustainability in production based on life cycle thinking. More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/10615 Supachai Vongbunyong · Wei Hua Chen Disassembly Automation Automated Systems with Cognitive Abilities 1 3 Supachai Vongbunyong Wei Hua Chen School of Mechanical and Manufacturing School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, Sustainable Manufacturing Engineering, Sustainable Manufacturing and Life Cycle Engineering Research and Life Cycle Engineering Research Group Group University of New South Wales University of New South Wales Sydney Sydney Australia Australia ISSN 2194-0541 ISSN 2194-055X (electronic) Sustainable Production, Life Cycle Engineering and Management ISBN 978-3-319-15182-3 ISBN 978-3-319-15183-0 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-15183-0 Library of Congress Control Number: 2015932072 Springer Cham Heidelberg New York Dordrecht London © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2015 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. Printed on acid-free paper Springer International Publishing AG Switzerland is part of Springer Science+Business Media (www.springer.com) Dedicated to Our Families Arpa and Sumeth Vongbunyong, Prapassri Leekphai —Supachai Vongbunyong Foreword Disassembly, as a step in the treatment of end-of-life products, can allow the recovery of embodied value left within disposed products as well as the appropriate separation of potentially hazardous components. In the end-of-life (EOL) treatment industries, disassembly has largely been limited to manual labor, which is expensive in developed countries. Automation is one possible solution for economic feasibility. However, the efforts of disassembly automation have been hindered due to the uncertainty and the complexity associated with disassembly processes. In this book, the authors present a number of aspects to be considered in the development of disassembly automation, including the mechanical system, vision system and intelligent planner. In addition, unlike automation for assembly processes, disassembly automation needs to deal with a number of complexities and uncertainties in products and process levels. In order to address this problem, a principle of cognitive robotics is implemented on the system to increase the flexibility and the degree of autonomy required. The proposed cognitive robotics system has been tested and validated by using the EOL LCD screens. The cognitive robotic application in disassembly represents a critical step forward in the current state of research with an application-oriented scope. As a result it paves the way towards achieving automation in disassembly, hence progress in industry and in the research towards sustainability in production. Prof. Christoph Herrmann Technische Universität Braunschweig Prof. Sami Kara The University of New South Wales vii Preface As the world’s population exponentially grows, consumption rates and the demand for new products also increase dramatically. As a consequence, a great number of end-of-life (EOL) products are continuously being disposed of, leading to a num- ber of environmental problems. Responsible EOL treatment—which may include reusing, recycling or remanufacturing products or parts—is desirable in dealing with these disposed products. These processes can be beneficial both environmen- tally and economically. Waste is minimised, while valuable components and mate- rials are recovered. The disassembly of products is one of the primary steps of EOL treatment pro- cesses, and involves the extraction and segregation of the desired components, parts or materials from the product. Disassembly does not only input towards EOL treatment, but also allows the repair and maintenance of products. However, most of this process is economically infeasible due to time consumption, process diffi- culty and expensive labour costs. Consequently, the option of disassembly is often ignored in industry. Replacement of human labour by automation has been successful in increasing the cost-effectiveness of many industries, especially manufacturing and production processes. Therefore, the implementation of an automated system in the disassem- bly process is considered as one possible solution. However, the disassembly pro- cess involves a number of challenging problems and cannot be considered as the reversal of the assembly process. A number of difficulties arise due to three main aspects: the physical uncertainties associated with the end-of-life product condi- tion, the large variety within the one product category, and complexities in process planning and operation. Therefore, disassembly automation needs to be designed to be flexible and is robust enough to overcome these issues. This book provides an overview of the design of disassembly automation, along with a case study example of the development of a new system based on the research, “Cognitive robotics in the disassembly of products”, conducted at the University of New South Wales, Australia. The general concept of product dis- assembly is introduced and a review of the existing disassembly automation sys- tems is presented. After that, the book provides an overview of the general system ix x Preface set-up, followed by detail into each primary operating module of the automated system. This book is organised as follows. Chapter 1 describes the importance of product disassembly as a key step in the end-of-life treatment process. This chapter also presents an overview of the current research direction in the field of disassembly. Chapter 2 provides an overview and literature review of the disassembly process. The literature shows that a number of techniques have already been developed at the planning and operational levels, typically for optimising the dis- assembly process for economic feasibility. These techniques can be implemented in both manual and autonomous disassembly. Chapter 3 considers the disassembly system as the integration of a number of operating modules working together to achieve the goal. An overview of this con- figuration is described. Existing research regarding the development of a (semi-) autonomous disassembly system and disassembly tools is reviewed. In addi- tion, the set-up of the workstation and system framework used in this research is explained. Chapter 4 provides an overview of perception in the disassembly system. Detection techniques, in regard to hardware and software used in existing research, are reviewed. This chapter also describes the implementation of the vision system in this research, including the detection of components based on common features and coordinate mapping using the depth camera. Chapter 5 explains the principle of cognitive robotics. The cognitive robotics agent is an intelligent planner that controls the behaviour of the system in order to overcome the variations and uncertainties in the disassembly process. The behav- iour is influenced by four cognitive functions, namely reasoning, execution moni- toring, learning and revision. Chapter 6 describes the integration of the aforementioned operating modules into a complete disassembly system. The software system applies the vision sys- tem, operation plans and the principle of cognitive robotics to a disassembly cell specifically designed for disassembling LCD screens. The detailed configuration of the system and additional information specific to the case-study product are also explained. Chapter 7 presents the conclusions developed as a result of this research in the development of a disassembly automation system. Technical perspectives of the system, its economic feasibility and the future work are also presented. Acknowledgments First, we would like to thank our supervisors Profs. Sami Kara and Maurice Pagnucco for the great opportunity given to us to work on this exciting research topic. They have always given the best support in terms of research direction, theory and technical help, which have been crucial in producing this work. Next, we would like to thank the School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering for their provision of research funding and facilities. In addition, we would like to thank the workshop and technical staff members, Martyn, Seetha, Russell, Alfred, Ian, Andy, Subash, Radha and Steve, for their great technical support and the manufacture of the hardware parts. We would like to thank Drs. Erik van Voorthuysen and David Rajaratnam (CSE) for their valuable suggestions and comments in the early stage of the disassembly cell set-up in regard to robot- ics and programming. In addition, we would like to thank TAD NSW Disability Services for supplying and donating LCD screens for testing. We would also like to thank the members of the Sustainable Manufacturing and Life Cycle Engineering Research Group (SMLCE@UNSW), in particular Dr. Suphunnika Ibbotson, Dr. Wen Li, Dr. Seung Jin Kim, Dr. Bernard Kornfeld, Dr. Kanda Boonsothonsatit, Dr. Rachata Khumboon, Pouya Ghadimi Karahrodi, SeyedHamed MoosaviRad, Smaeil Mousavi, Wei Lau, Samira Alvandi and Scott Ibbotson, for the sharing of ideas, valuable comments, their warm welcomes and all the other assistance that they have provided. Moreover, we would like to thank our German colleagues, in particular Prof. Dr.-Ing. Christoph Herrmann, Dr. Tobius Luger, Gerrit Bogdanski and other researchers from JGARG for their insights into the disassembly of LCD screens, LCA and manufacturing. I, Wei Hua, would additionally like to thank the crew at UNSW Mechatronics, in particular Dr. Mark Whitty, Dr. Jose Guivant, Dr. Ngai Kwok and Michael Woods for the technical and personal support they have provided, and all I have learnt in our various conversations. Thanks also to the MoFA group at the Institute of Machine Tools and Production Technology (IWF), TU Braunschweig, where I xi
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