Sequence Planning Considering Human Fatigue for Human-Robot Collaboration in Disassembly

Abstract

Disassembly, which plays an essential role in remanufacturing, is the first step to extend the service life of end-of-life (EOL) products. Traditional disassembly is always accomplished by either humans or robots. Manual disassembly is a time-consuming process, and the high labour intensity will also pose a threat to human health, while robotic disassembly is difficult to flexibly handle complex parts. Continuous manual work leads to the accumulation of fatigue, which decreases the efficiency of manual work. In this paper, sequence planning considering human fatigue for human-robot collaboration in disassembly (HRCD) is proposed. This method involves assigning disassembly task to human and robot according to their respective characteristics, models for HRCD considering human fatigue is established. In the case of disassembling batches products with the same type, discrete Bees algorithm is used to obtain the optimal disassembly sequence to minimize the total disassembly time. Case studies based on gear pumps show that the proposed algorithm outperforms the other two optimization algorithms in solution quality.