Each electric vehicle battery is unique, and therefore, “its dismantling requires continuous adaptation involving specific parameter adjustments and the use of advanced technologies such as machine vision to ensure precise and non-destructive dismantling, allowing for the efficient recovery of the materials it contains,” explains Eric Domingo, a researcher at Eurecat's Robotics and Automation Unit.
As Néstor García, head of the Robotic Manipulation Line at Eurecat's Robotics and Automation Unit, explains, “we are developing a battery-type-independent, scalable, and reusable solution for other scenarios without requiring predefined information, using automatic online programming.”
The implemented collaborative robotics solution will allow the operator to perform higher value-added tasks in the same workspace as the robot, which has been equipped with an industrial screwdriver to use the different tools it needs at each stage of dismantling.
The robot can identify the position of the screws using an onboard depth camera and detects them through training with the You Only Look Once (YOLO) algorithm.
For handling bulky objects, such as battery covers, a custom-made tool with multiple foam grippers has been manufactured to adapt to any surface, ensuring a secure grip.
Furthermore, the robot is mounted on an external linear axis, enabling it to move along the entire length of the battery for thorough and efficient dismantling. To plan and execute trajectories, Eurecat has implemented a joint manipulator for the linear axis and the robot.
Finally, the robot's behavior was developed using Behavior Tree, a library developed at the technology center and designed to create behavior trees for task planning in robotic systems.
Within the Free4Lib project, Eurecat analyzed different parts of the process to select the tasks that posed the greatest risk of causing harm or injury to operators and involved the most repetitive tasks, in order to automate them.

Efficient Dismantling of Lithium-Ion Batteries:
The Free4Lib project seeks to address the growing need to develop efficient and safe processes for the dismantling and sorting of end-of-life lithium-ion batteries (LIBs), driven by the exponential increase in demand across various sectors. It also aims to identify opportunities to improve the efficiency and safety of these processes through human-robot collaboration.
Specifically, this initiative aims to develop six sustainable, innovative, and efficient processes for recycling batteries at the end of their useful life: dismantling, pretreatment, and four material recovery processes.
The Free4Lib project consortium, "Feasible recovery of critical raw materials through a new circular ecosystem for a cross-value chain of lithium-ion batteries in Europe," coordinated by CARTIF, is funded by the European Union's Horizon 2020 program.

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