Component Influence-Driven Fastener Reduction for Robotic Disassemblability-Aware Design Simplification

2026-05-20

AI Summary

This work addresses the lack of quantitative feedback on structural elements that impede robotic disassembly in current product design, which hinders disassembly optimization. The authors propose a CAD-based method that constructs a contact–connection–constraint graph to analyze robotic disassembly sequences and quantify the influence of individual components. For the first time, this influence is mapped onto the geometric model to generate a 3D heatmap, enabling automatic identification and recommendation of key fasteners that can be eliminated without compromising structural integrity. Experiments on seven household appliances demonstrate that the approach successfully identifies redundant fasteners, removes 8–132 structural constraints, reduces tool changes, and shortens robotic travel distance by 165–1675 mm within allowable structural limits.

Abstract

To accelerate automated remanufacturing, robotic disassembly must be considered during the product design phase. However, designers currently lack quantitative feedback to identify which structural elements hinder robotic operations. To address this, this study proposes an analytical framework that provides actionable redesign guidance focused on fastener reduction, as fasteners are numerous and ubiquitous components found in almost all manufactured products. Using a Computer-Aided Design (CAD) model and its automatically generated Contact-Connection-Constraint (CCC) graph, the framework translates robotic disassembly sequence planning outcomes into component influence scores. These scores reflect how often a component causes structural constraint violations or evaluation objective deteriorations in the robotic disassembly sequence. To visually highlight structural hindrances, the framework projects these scores onto the CAD geometry as 3D heatmaps. The system then analytically simulates the removal of highly influential fasteners. It reports the expected reductions in structural constraints, tool changes, and robot travel distances, while preventing structurally unsafe modifications by evaluating geometric stability metrics. Experiments on seven household appliances demonstrate that the framework successfully targets redundant fasteners. Removing the recommended fasteners simplified the structural dependencies by eliminating between 8 and 132 structural constraints on the graph depending on each product's structural configuration. Furthermore, it improved robotic operational efficiency by eliminating unnecessary tool change operations and shortening travel distances by 165 to 1675 millimeters wherever structurally permissible.

Problem

• robotic disassembly
• fastener reduction
• design for disassembly
• structural constraints
• remanufacturing

Innovation

• robotic disassemblability
• fastener reduction
• component influence scoring
• CCC graph
• design for remanufacturing