Apple’s Recycling Robot May Help Build iPhones, Too
March 23rd, 2016Via: MIT Technology Review:
Apple now makes robots. What’s more, the company’s new recycling robot, called Liam, may be evidence of a push to automate the production of the iPhone.
At Apple’s slightly humdrum event on Monday, the company showed a video of Liam carefully pulling iPhones apart for recycling. The cutesy clip showed the robot unscrewing and removing the device’s case and pulling apart different electronic chips with suction cups before tossing an iPhone shell into a bin.
What’s most interesting about Liam is not its ability to pull phones apart, though—Apple has been automating the process of recycling damaged phones for some time. Rather, it is a glimpse into what an automated assembly process might look like.
