Robots for sustainability: waste management and renewable energy

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to provide details of the role played by robots in two key aspects of a sustainable, industrial economy: waste management and renewable energy production. Design/methodology/approach Following an introduction, this first provides details of the role played by robots in waste management, principally waste sorting and product disassembly. It then discusses the applications of robots in the renewable energy sector. Finally, brief conclusions are drawn. Findings Robots are playing an important and growing role in waste management and renewable energy production. Driven by artificial intelligence -enabled machine vision, robotic systems are used to sort mixed municipal and industrial waste to recover materials for recycling. Robotic systems for e-waste recycling are at an earlier stage but research seeks to develop systems to dismantle electronic products for the recovery of components and high-value materials. Robots are used widely in the production, installation and maintenance of photovoltaics and mobile robots are dramatically reducing the cost and times to install solar panels. Robots presently find limited uses in wind turbine blade manufacture but research is underway which seeks to automate several blade finishing processes. Many wind turbine inspection tasks are conducted by drones and specialised robots have been developed for blade and tower inspection, maintenance, cleaning and repair. Originality/value This provides a detailed insight into how robots are contributing to a sustainable, industrial economy by discussing applications in waste management and renewable energy production.