AI-powered robots help solve the growing e-waste problem in Europe

EU-funded researchers have developed adaptive robots that can change the way we recycle e-waste, which can benefit the environment and the economy.

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Outside the historic German town of Goslar, a sprawling industrial complex has acquired endless waste electronics. Upon arrival, this e-waste is prepared for the energy of recycling.

Electric ring GmbH is one of the largest e-waste recycling facilities in Europe. Every year, it processes up to 80,000 tons of electronic waste, in various shapes and forms.

Manual removal

Despite the various machines, more than half of the staff on the site have manually prepared waste for recycling. They sort incoming waste and remove batteries, which is a major challenge in fire waste recycling.

“More and more devices are getting smaller and smaller, and they all contain lithium batteries, some of which are permanently installed, welded or bonded in place,” said Hannes Fröhlich, managing director of electrical.

“It’s not a dream job to remove these devices every day with a hammer and pliers. I think we can do better.”

Some of these tedious tasks can be performed by robots. However, the problem is that every time a product or process changes, the hardware and software need to be reorganized. This can be expensive and time-consuming.

To solve this problem, an EU-funded research program called Reconcycle automates the process by creating robots that can reconfigure their own for different tasks.

New fields of robotics

Researchers from Slovenia, Germany and Italy work together from 2020 to 2024 at the Jožef Stefan Institute, a leading research in Slovenia.

The team developed an adaptive AI-enabled robot that is able to remove batteries from smoke detectors and radiator heat meters.

Both products can be found in most households and are replaced every five to eight years, resulting in large quantities of waste.

“The main challenge is that each device has many different versions. Just think of how many different remotes there are.” He is the head of the Department of Automation, BioTB and Robotics at the Jožef Stefan Institute and coordinated the Reconcycle Research team.

In industrial environments, robots are often programmed for a specific task, repeating a series of the same motions in a predictable environment.

Instead, researchers set out to use the latest AI to create a robot that can adapt to many different tasks.

“We want to expand robotics and introduce robots that don’t have any robots yet,” Ude said.

An increasingly serious problem

UDE’s international research team worked with batteries to create an adaptive robotic work unit. This is a workspace consisting of at least one robot, its tools and equipment and its controllers.

The novelty here is that the enclosed system automatically adapts to various tasks with the help of complex AI-driven software and modular hardware, and can be quickly reconfigured. It also uses soft components such as Softhand, a human-like hand that can manipulate objects with precision.

There are also security features such as collaborative robots and emergency stop buttons.

UDE said international cooperation is crucial to ensuring the right expertise.

“Robot technology is very interdisciplinary, so it’s hard to find the right partner in a country.”

Thankfully, as the amount of e-waste generated each year increases, the new robot is reaching the right time. Nearly 5 million tons of electronic waste are produced in the EU every year, with each person being about 11 kilograms. The European Parliament warns that less than 40% of recycling is available.

Globally, around 62 million tons of electronic waste were produced in 2022 alone, enough to fill 1.5 million 40-ton trucks, according to UN data. What is even more worrying is that the amount of electronic waste increases five times faster than the amount being recycled.

The EU is working to reduce electronic waste through the electrical and electronic equipment directives, which sets standards for collection and recycling.

The UDE team’s work is also aligned with the EU’s digital strategy, which encourages the use of AI to increase efficiency in manufacturing and helps achieve climate neutrality by 2050.

Throw away money

Electronic waste also has serious economic impacts. According to the United Nations’ global electronic waste monitor, an estimated loss of €84 billion per year is estimated to be lost when valuable metals such as copper, iron and gold are discarded rather than reused.

In electrical, 80% of the electronic waste is recycled as raw materials, such as iron, zinc, gold, silver and palladium – a total of about 35 materials.

“People need to understand that it is not only a waste, but also a raw material that needs to be recycled and kept in circulation, including economic efficiency and reduced carbon dioxide,” Fröhlich said.

New technologies can improve their efficiency, and Fröhlich sees a lot of potential.

“I was surprised at how far technology and AI have gone,” he said. “They even rebuild human hands for robots.”

UDE hopes to continue using electrical rings to further improve the electronic waste solution. Hopefully, and adaptive robots that can handle changing environments will use their applications far beyond e-waste recycling.

Ude said that given more time and development, these robots can even handle general housekeeping or provide support for caregivers in advanced homes.

“Robot technology can be of great help in these areas.”

The research in this article is funded by the EU’s Horizon Program. The views of respondents do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Commission.

More information

This article was originally published in the European Journal of Research and Innovation.

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