  With the rapid surge in the number of on-road Electric Vehicles (EVs), the
amount of spent lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries is also expected to explosively
grow. The spent battery packs contain valuable metal and materials that should
be recovered, recycled, and reused. However, only less than 5% of the Li-ion
batteries are currently recycled, due to a multitude of challenges in
technology, logistics and regulation. Existing battery recycling is performed
manually, which can pose a series of risks to the human operator as a
consequence of remaining high voltage and chemical hazards. Therefore, there is
a critical need to develop an automated battery recycling system. In this
paper, we present ABatRe-sim, an open-source robotic battery recycling
simulator, to facilitate the research and development in efficient and
effective battery recycling au-omation. Specifically, we develop a detailed CAD
model of the battery pack (with screws, wires, and battery modules), which is
imported into Gazebo to enable robot-object interaction in the robot operating
system (ROS) environment. It also allows the simulation of battery packs of
various aging conditions. Furthermore, perception, planning, and control
algorithms are developed to establish the benchmark to demonstrate the
interface and realize the basic functionalities for further user customization.
Discussions on the utilization and future extensions of the simulator are also
presented.
