Mechatronics and robotics

Decommissioning of Industrial Robots 
By definition, robots are aids created to make work easier, faster, 
more accurate, and safer to do. They are mechanically driven and have 
some artificial intelligence that can be programmed to perform different 
commands. Robots have been developed for many reasons, but have 
largely found their major use in the manufacturing sector. Some of the 
work that can be performed by industrial robots is the lifting of heavy 
weights, painting, drilling, welding, and handling chemicals and hazardous 
materials. These robots are mainly fixed and have limited movement. 
Maintenance departments and facilities that handle hazardous 
material also use robots to do work. Exploration missions to the moon and 
more recently to Mars used robotic equipment to survey and collect data 
for research centers on earth. Exploration robots are built to withstand 
extreme conditions and are mobile; they need to be mobile to conduct 
geological surveys and collect data and samples. Anti-terrorism agencies 
and the military use robots to neutralize dangerous things like bombs or 
mines. Personal robots are rare since they need to be programmed to do 
many different tasks. 
When industrial robots stop working or are replaced with newer 
versions, it is called "decommissioning". The problem of disposal, of 
course, starts after the robot has been decommissioned. Resale, sending to 
a scrap yard, using it for land-fill, and recycling are some of the options 

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available for decommissioned robots. The fate that a decommissioned 
robot meets depends on the nature of work for which it was developed, the 
materials used for making it, and the law of the land. 
Recycling 
If no potential customer for the used equipment comes forward, 
retired industrial robots should ideally be sent to recycling plants for the 
proper disposal of the different materials used to build them. Most robots 
are built using plastic and metals, which should not pose any dangers, but 
within these robots are many electronic sensors, motion detectors, 
batteries, motors, and other part that may contain harmful materials. This 
does not apply to all robots, but particularly does for robots that are 
constructed as a single operational unit. 
Robotic attachments like used pick and place robots, painting robots, 
and precision welding, positioning, and manufacturing robots, as well as 
all robots that receive commands from a central command, do not pose a 
high pollution risk as they are composed mostly of mechanical parts. 
Nevertheless, all used robots, if possible, should be sent to robot recycling 
units who specialize in dismantling them and extracting all the reusable