Retired Robots Can Be Kept Out of the Bin via Repurposing, Rather Than Recycling, Researchers Say
"Unique to robots," repurposing would see robotic systems given new software and new hardware integrations to focus on new tasks.
Researchers at the University of Bristol and University of West England have called for a new look at how robots are retired from active service, proposing to find them new jobs instead of recycling them for parts in order to reduce the electronic waste (e-waste) problem.
"Regardless of being in industry, academia, or the general public, we are all aware of the growing piles of e-waste produced around the globe," says corresponding author Helen McGloin of the team's focus. "Levels of electronic waste are growing annually around the globe, and the introduction of new robotic products in homes, schools, and workplaces will only add to this problem in the near future. While recycling may seem like an easy option to tackle electronic waste, it is so often mismanaged that alternatives must be sought. This paper looks to challenge all those in the robotics industry to think creatively and pre-emptively into designing for a circular economy."
The team points to a projection by the United Nations' Global E-Waste Monitor program that suggests electronic waste may rise to 75 million metric tons a year by 2030 — up from an already-problematic 54 million metric tons in 2019. Neither figure, they point out, includes robots and robotic systems, a classification issue which is expected to be addressed in the future.
The solution, the team proposes, is that robots are found new tasks once they are retired from their original work — something the researchers call "repurposing" rather than "reusing," and claim is unique to robots thanks to their ability to be reprogrammed with new software and even integrated with new hardware to deliver a device that is still a robot but one tailored to a new task than the one for which it was originally designed.
The researchers plan follow-up work to capture consumer attitudes towards second-hand robotic systems, industry attitudes towards both e-waste generation and the right to repair, and to investigate processes for the repurposing of robots and the creation of a circular economy for robotic systems.
The team's initial paper is available in the proceedings of the Towards Autonomous Robotic Systems 2024 (TARO '24) conference, under closed-access terms.