Sami Kara

About

Sami Kara is a leading researcher in sustainable manufacturing and robotic disassembly automation, with particular expertise in end-of-life product treatment and the circular economy. His work addresses one of modern industry's most pressing challenges: the automated recovery of valuable materials from waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) and electric vehicle batteries. Kara's most influential contribution, "Robot Assisted Disassembly for the Recycling of Electric Vehicle Batteries" (2015, 225 citations), established foundational approaches for handling the growing volume of EV batteries reaching end-of-life — a problem of increasing global urgency. Alongside this, his pioneering series of papers on cognitive robotics in disassembly automation, published between 2012 and 2014, introduced intelligent, vision-based robotic systems capable of handling physical product variations without detailed prior knowledge — a significant breakthrough for practical deployment. His later research expanded into ontology-based learning, artificial intelligence for part identification, and multi-head robotic tooling, demonstrating a consistent drive to bridge the gap between laboratory research and industrial application. With over 660 cumulative citations, Kara's body of work has meaningfully shaped how researchers and engineers approach sustainable disassembly, making him a key figure in the field of environmentally responsible manufacturing.

Research Focus

Key Achievements

Top Papers

1. 1
   Robot Assisted Disassembly for the Recycling of Electric Vehicle Batteries

   225 citations · 2015
2. 2
   Application of cognitive robotics in disassembly of products

   106 citations · 2013
3. 3
   Learning and revision in cognitive robotics disassembly automation

   80 citations · 2014
4. 4
   Basic behaviour control of the vision-based cognitive robotic disassembly automation

   71 citations · 2013
5. 5
   Challenges of robotic disassembly in practice

   40 citations · 2022
6. 6
   Automated generation and execution of disassembly actions

   38 citations · 2020
7. 7
   A Framework for Using Cognitive Robotics in Disassembly Automation

   32 citations · 2012
8. 8
   Artificial Learning for Part Identification in Robotic Disassembly Through Automatic Rule Generation in an Ontology

   27 citations · 2022
9. 9
   Application of a multi-head tool for robotic disassembly

   23 citations · 2020
10. 10
    An Ontology-Based Method for Semi-Automatic Disassembly of LCD Monitors and Unexpected Product Types

    22 citations · 2021

Key Collaborators

Contact & Links