Researchers at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) have developed a robotic system designed to automatically dismantle broken products while preserving valuable components for reuse. Unlike conventional robotic assembly, disassembly is difficult because damaged devices can behave unpredictably. The system combines robotic manipulators with predictive algorithms, CAD models, and mathematical models of possible damage. It tests how individual components move, compares their behaviour with expectations, and updates its disassembly plan in real time. For example, if a screw is stuck, the robot can recognize that its original strategy has failed and switch to another technique, such as milling away surrounding material.
Users can also specify which components are particularly valuable, allowing the system to prioritize keeping them intact. The researchers see technology as an important step toward an automated circular economy, in which machines and electronic products are repaired, refurbished, and reused rather than discarded. The long-term vision is a factory containing many specialized robotic arms equipped with different tools, capable of dismantling a wide range of products, extracting defective components, replacing them, and potentially rebuilding the devices automatically. If scaled successfully, automated disassembly could make repairing products cheaper than manufacturing replacements, reducing electronic waste and the demand for new raw materials.
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