The Future of the Circular Economy: Revolutionizing the Automotive Industry with Advanced Robotics and AI

The world is witnessing a paradigm shift towards a circular economy, where resources remain in economic circulation through extended product lifespans, reuse, recycling, and waste elimination.

Despite this concept gaining traction in consumer goods—with easily recyclable clothing and user-repairable electronics becoming more common—the manufacturing sector still grapples with the challenge of transforming waste into valuable resources.

Take the automotive industry, for instance. To achieve a truly circular lifecycle for vehicles, the dismantling and sorting process must yield high-purity recyclable raw materials. However, current methods struggle to extract materials free of impurities, which hampers effective resource utilization.

Making it easier to recycle vehicle materials will have a significant impact on society, and pave the way for sustainable manufacturing and product creation. However, there are hurdles we need to overcome to turn that vision into reality.

Sluggish progress in automotive material circulation can be attributed largely to the current end-of-life vehicle (ELV) dismantling process. The practice of shredding vehicles without prior material separation results in a mixed output of materials, severely limiting recycling potential.

The typical ELV recycling process begins with dismantling companies acquiring ELVs. After legally mandated procedures such as safely detonating and processing airbags and recovering freon, salvageable parts are manually removed for resale or reuse. The remaining vehicle body is then passed to a shredding company for fragmentation.

Post-shredding, various methods—including magnetic separation and flotation—are employed to sort materials, which are then sold as recycled materials. Hideki Okuda from the Circular Economy Development Department highlights a major challenge in this process:

"Combining manual dismantling and post-shredding sorting has inherent limitations regarding material purity. The resulting recycled materials often contain impurities, making them unsuitable for high-quality products. Moreover, reusing them in cars, which are responsible for human lives, is extremely difficult.”

For instance, most extracted plastics are lost in the sorting process, ultimately becoming automobile shredder residue (ASR) used in thermal recovery—a process that takes out energy from waste incineration.

Approximately 70% of automotive plastics get incinerated without reuse, with a mere 2% finding their way back into vehicle components. While some developing countries employ labor-intensive manual dismantling and sorting, such practices are economically unfeasible in advanced economies.

DENSO's Social Innovation Business Development Function Unit has established the Circular Economy Development Division to address these challenges. Their mission is to eliminate waste in the automotive industry by recycling all components of ELVs into raw materials for new vehicles, creating a true Car to Car circular economy.

Responding to the growing demand for circular economies, multiple DENSO divisions are collaborating on this initiative. The resource circulation process is often likened to human blood circulation, with raw material procurement and manufacturing processes referred to as the arteries and the collection, dismantling, and recycling of ELVs as the veins.

The Circular Economy Development Division focuses on the veins—the post-use stages of vehicle disposal, dismantling, and recycling—to significantly improve the currently low circulation rate of automotive materials. They are developing an automated precision dismantling system that leverages robotics and AI recognition and judgment technologies to perform meticulous dismantling and sorting, aiming to provide dismantling companies with the means to extract high-purity, high-quality recycled materials in large quantities at low cost.

Atsushi Jitsumatsu of the Circular Economy Development Division elaborates on the system's details and potential:

"Robots perform automated precision dismantling and sorting after removing parts from ELVs, but before everything gets shredded. We focus mainly on developing technology to extract and recover high-purity plastics, aiming to reuse about 90% of the total weight of a vehicle.

The automated precision dismantling system is intended for use by dismantling companies. By introducing this system, we anticipate the ability to transform previously unused resources into high-purity recycled raw materials, enabling high-speed sorting and shipping on a large scale."

The automated precision dismantling system, designed to advance the recycling of ELVs, leverages technologies DENSO has cultivated in an unexpected field: medical-surgical assistance.

With approximately 2,500 car models in existence, each potentially comprising up to 30,000 parts that vary by manufacturer and specifications, the dismantling process faces immense complexity. Moreover, the end-use of each part—whether it's destined for material recycling or reuse as a secondhand part—necessitates different dismantling methods. This infinite combination of variables makes standardization of the dismantling process exceptionally challenging.

DENSO is leveraging its expertise in robotics, originally developed for medical applications, to address these challenges. The company is adapting technologies from two key medical innovations: iArmS*, a surgical assistance robot designed to minimize tremors and reduce fatigue in surgeons' arms, and OPeLiNK*, a platform that integrates and manages information in operating rooms. This digital platform faithfully records individual surgical techniques for the world's population of 8 billion, and is now being applied to input vehicle dismantling processes.

*iArmS technology was transferred to Toho Technology Corporation in 2018.
*OPeLiNK technology was transferred to OPExPARK Inc. in 2019.

"Using dismantling support robots adapted from surgical assistance robots, we first manually dismantle vehicles and parts, digitally converting the process and allowing AI to learn from it. Once optimized, the AI can automatically dismantle similar vehicles and parts. By repeating this process, we aim to eventually automate all dismantling operations.

Furthermore, DENSO has accumulated and formalized extensive knowledge about the location and types of components and materials used in vehicles, as well as how to standardize on-site operations. This expertise and data can be utilized to train AI systems in dismantling patterns. We have continuously worked on automating and standardizing production processes, accumulating valuable insights, technologies, and know-how. This core competency is what enables us to take on the challenge of automating precision vehicle dismantling." explains Okuda.

In a society that has fully embraced the circular economy, those involved in dismantling and recycling—the so-called venous industries—will play a pivotal role.

Jitsumatsu's commitment to the venous industry was reinforced by a poignant experience during a two-week field study with dismantling workers. He recalls a conversation over lunch on the final day:

"During our conversation, the workers shared something that left a lasting impression on me," Jitsumatsu recounts. "With a mix of laughter and resignation, they said:

'Sometimes we are called 'garbage men' by our clients. It is quite a harsh label. When they announce plans for a dismantling facility in a neighborhood the residents often react with disdain. There is an unspoken sentiment that it is not something you proudly claim as your profession. It is ironic, given how much attention is focused on our industry these days. But it is our reality. I am sure everyone in our field has had a similar experience.'

This confession left me shocked. It made me realize that I needed to use my abilities to change this perception, even if only a little.

“I feel a strong desire to contribute to making the venous industry a profession that children can aspire to. Furthermore, I am determined to work towards a future where vehicles are truly recycled into new vehicles, completing a full circle of sustainability."

DENSO aims to spotlight the partners contributing to the circular economy within the automotive resource circulation system. Hiroshi Yamakita of the Circular Economy Development Department emphasizes the importance of avoiding negative impacts on those who have long supported the venous industry by introducing new technologies and systems.

"When high-purity recycled materials that were previously hardly used begin to circulate in large quantities in the market, fundamentally changing the flow of resources, it would be pointless if they were mixed with other low-quality materials or bought at unfairly low prices. To prevent such situations, it is essential to build a sustainable system across the entire value chain," Yamakita explains.

With this mindset, the project is progressing in collaboration with dismantling and recycling businesses. Furthermore, DENSO is partnering with material manufacturers, auto parts makers, and research institutions to prepare for technological validation and social implementation.

Currently, the development of the automated precision dismantling system is in the data input phase, where AI learns to optimize dismantling operations performed by humans. The roadmap envisions automating major operations and solidifying the business foundation by 2027, with simultaneous overseas expansion. By 2035, the goal is to achieve full automation for all vehicle types and complex operations.

Okuda envisions an ideal future for 2035 where manufacturing and the circular economy coexist.

"In a circular economy, reducing the production of new items is often seen as virtuous. This might lead some to view manufacturing industries like ours as villains in the circular economy narrative.

However, manufacturing—at its core—is about enriching our lives and enhancing human creativity. We aim to view manufacturing holistically, encompassing the entire lifecycle of products. Our goal is to practice sustainable and creative manufacturing that contributes to human happiness and well-being.

If we can realize a world where we can cleanly return manufactured products to their pre-production state and then be transformed into something new, then manufacturing cannot be considered inherently bad.

A society where manufacturing and the circular economy coexist—that is the future we aim to create."