ABSTRACT
Disassembly automation is critical to enabling autonomous remanufacturing of the returned end-of-life products in a circular economy. Screw unfastening is a disassembly method that still poses difficulty to robotic disassembly systems. This paper presents a new method of automated screw unfastening for robotic disassembly by combining the strategies of torque control, position control and active compliance. The paper outlines the setup, process and control procedure of the proposed robotic screw unfastening technique. It then presents an experiment to show a practical implementation of the proposed method. The experiment involved the dismantling of screws from an automotive turbocharger by an industrial collaborative robot. The test results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.
