The UK’s growing fleet of industrial robots is getting a digital passport that tracks their performance and material contents from factory floor to scrap heap. As the UK’s industrial robot market expands by over 40% annually, decommissioned robots are piling up with embedded critical raw materials that current recycling processes largely waste. Today, maintenance relies on manual checks and standard schedules, leading to over-maintenance and missed faults, while end-of-life refurbishment is costly and often results in downcycling valuable materials. This project uses AI and blockchain to create a real-time, trusted record of each robot’s service history and condition. If successful, the system would let manufacturers predict failures before they happen, extend robot lifespans, and enable efficient remanufacturing or recycling of critical materials. The impact is on industrial supply chains and manufacturing resilience: fewer costly replacements, less waste of scarce materials, and a data-driven benchmark for sustainable automation across automotive, aerospace, and healthcare sectors. The research is applied, targeting a specific industrial problem rather than fundamental science.
View original technical description
Research aim: To investigate digital solutions to promote a circular use of traditional/collaborative industrial robots (IR) in manufacturing lines by extending the useful life as well as enabling their end-of-life (EoL) remanufacturing and recycling of embedded critical raw materials (CRM). Context: The UK, being the eight largest manufacturing economy, is increasing its reliance on industrial robots (IR) within its manufacturing sector. According to BEIS's research, the country's industrial robots market is projected to grow at over 40% annually from 2020-2030. However, this rapid integration brings concerns with regards to environmental sustainability, given that decommissioned robots and related equipment often contain large amount of CRM. Challenge: The primary challenge is managing the environmental impacts of the widespread use of IR in various sectors like automotive, aeronautical, and healthcare. Current maintenance practices in the UK often rely on manual checks and standard procedures, leading to over-maintenance, high costs, and missed faults. (lack of trusted monitoring data) during use stage, the EoL management involves costly refurbishment to enable a secondary use cycle (often by a different end-user) and/or downcycling of CRM due to adoption of inappropriate material recycling processes. Objectives: Enable real-time access to authentic performance and service history data of IRs recorded within a digital passport, using advances in AI and blockchain. Prolong the operational life of IRs, thereby reducing the need for repairs or replacements. Facilitate remanufacturing and circular use of CRM. Develop a digitally-enabled EoL management system for IRs. This system aims to predict future IR failure scenarios, promote industry-wide collaboration, and enhance operational efficiency and resilience. Implement a proactive, data-driven lifecycle maintenance approach that is cost-efficient, optimizes equipment performance, and ensures environmental sustainability. Ensure early intervention and informed decisions regarding IR recovery processes using real-time metrics and Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) data. Potential Applications & Benefits: Operational Excellence: The proposed system aims to reduce costly repairs and replacements by predicting potential equipment failures. Environmental Stewardship: By promoting a circular use of IRs and CRM, this initiative establishes a sustainable benchmark for industrial automation. Industry-wide Collaboration: The blockchain network cultivates an industry-wide, collaborative approach to maintenance, improving resilience. Enhanced IR Design: The data-driven approach produces insights for improved design of future IRs, combining operational efficiency with environmental consideration. Cost-Efficiency: Proactive maintenance and data-driven recovery strategies reduce operational costs. In conclusion, Circular Robot 5.0 seeks to influence the growing UK's manufacturing sector by ensuring that its increasing reliance on industrial robots is both technologically advanced and environmentally sustainable.
Plain English summaries and category classifications on this site are generated by AI and may not perfectly reflect the original research.
Is something wrong? Let us know