Robotic Disassembly of Electrical Cable Connectors: A Critical Review

The rapid increase in the production of Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) and batteries requires advanced automated disassembly solutions. While disassembly automation has progressed, the non-destructive removal of electrical cable connectors (ECCs) remains a critical unresolved challenge, particularly for battery packs where safety is paramount. This paper presents a critical review of the state-of-the-art in robotic ECC disassembly. To systematically assess the technological maturity of the field, the authors introduce a functional decomposition of the process into six fundamental tasks: detection, pose estimation, accessibility, motion planning, manipulation, and extraction. While detection, pose estimation, and manipulation are more advanced due to contributions from adjacent fields like assembly and inspection, accessibility, motion planning, and extraction are still at an early stage. Based on the identified gaps, the authors suggest that future developments could follow two main directions: leveraging comprehensive databases for applications with limited variability, or shifting the disassembly approach from the connector housing to the locking mechanism to achieve broader applicability.