ReconCycle

At ICRA 2024, held in Yokohama (Japan), Manuel Giuseppe Catalano from Italian Institute of Technology, Genoa, has been invited as one of the main keynote speakers. In his talk titled “Robots in the Wild: From Research Labs to the Real World,” he discussed the forefront of robotics and automation, highlighting breakthroughs in intelligent robotic systems and their applications, including the context of disassembly for recycling.

Sentient Horizons 2024, a new series by Istituto Marangoni Milano, The School of Design, began with the support of ASI and the Italian Institute of Technology. This year’s program, Human-Machine Adaptation, explored how design intersected with emerging technologies like robotics and AI, including virtual worlds. The ADI Design Museum hosted the events, starting with PAX AESTHETICA on May 8, 2024, featuring Anouk Wipprecht, Maria Fossati, and Manuel Catalano. They discussed how AI, robotics, and smart materials were transforming design and fostering a harmonious future between humans and machines.

The coordinator of ReconCycle Aleš Ude attended BrIAS Forum on Sustainable Robotic Technologies, held on March 29th, 2024, at VUB in Brussels, Belgium. The aim of the forum was to discuss sustainable robotics technologies ranging from material science, material processing and metal, electronics with sensors and processing, actuators, energy, power and batteries control, and artificial intelligence. Aleš Ude presented the results of ReconCycle in a talk titled Adaptive robotics for the recycling of electronic devices.

Following the activities in the ReconCycle project, TUM established the “AI Robot Performance and Safety Center,” with the goal of facilitating the safe integration of robots. The center focuses on three main areas: machinery limitation evaluation, injury analysis, and risk mitigation strategies. Over the past year, related research has been presented to numerous visitors and companies, including BMW, Siemens, DLR, UR, and Franka.

In the frame of European Robotics Forum in Rimini, Italy, ReconCycle in cooperation with the Imagine project organised a workshop titled Adaptive Robotics for Recycling of Electronic Devices. The workshop included three speakers from ReconCycle, Manuel Catalano (IIT), Mihael Simonič (JSI), and Sebastian Ruiz (University of Göttingen).

Our speakers discussed the technological challenges of automated recycling of electronic devices and how to address them with soft robotics, robot learning, and computer vision technologies. A panel discussion that included experts such as Hannes Fröhlich (Electrocycling) and Tamim Asfour (KIT) was held at the end of the workshop.

ReconCycle countinues to present our results at events across Europe. In March qbrobotics exhibited their work at European Robotics Forum in Rimini, Italy. They showed the grasping and manipulation versatility of qb SoftHand and the Variable Stiffness Gripper for many applications like the electronic waste recycling.

ReconCycle was a technical sponsor of the Robothon competition organized by Technical University of Munich. Inspired by this project, Robothon brings together roboticists from around the world to create robotic manipulation skills for autonomous handling of electronic waste. The teams were given four weeks to solve a specially designed task board, which includes operations typical for electronic waste recycling. It is worth to mention that prof. Ude (the lead of the ReconCycle project consortium) was part of jury committee in 2023.

The award ceremony was held on June 29th, 2023, at the automatica trade fair in Munich, Germany. Congratulations to the winner, team RoboPig from Technical University of Applied Sciences, Würzburg-Schweinfurt, Germany.