Benchmarking Image Retrieval and Data Completeness for Leveraging Digital Product Passports for Hidden Fastener Localisation for Robotic Demanufacturing

Benchmarking Image Retrieval and Data Completeness for Leveraging Digital Product Passports for Hidden Fastener Localisation for Robotic Demanufacturing | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Benchmarking Image Retrieval and Data Completeness for Leveraging Digital Product Passports for Hidden Fastener Localisation for Robotic Demanufacturing Hao Qin, Dillam J. Diaz-Romero, Wouter Sterkens, Anthonie Coopman, and 3 more This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-9264506/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Under Review Version 1 posted 6 You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Efficient demanufacturing of Waste of Electric and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) is currently hindered by the unstructured nature of waste streams, the imperfection of computer vision systems, and the inability to detect hidden components, such as fasteners concealed under labels. To address this, a novel Digital Product Passport (DPP) system is developed that integrates real-time computer vision with historical product data stored in DPP. The study demonstrates how to use DPP system to complete a demanufacturing task, especially in case of hidden screws. The research presents three primary contributions. First, the robustness of the image retrieval pipeline for product model identification is benchmarked across three distinct E-waste datasets: Hard Disk Drives (HDDs), bike batteries, and laptops. Results indicate that retrieval is highly reliable for products with distinct physical features and less model variety (HDDs and batteries), and more challenging for many model variety products (laptops). Furthermore, a comparison of feature extraction models shows that Vision Transformers (ViT) outperforms ResNet50 on the laptop dataset. Second, a case study on HDD disassembly evaluates the effectiveness of the proposed DPP system in localizing hidden screws. By fusing retrieved DPP information with YOLOv8-based perception, the system successfully identifies fasteners hidden under plastic covers. Experimental results show that the DPP-assisted approach significantly improves screw detection recall from 0.76 to 0.93 compared to vision-only methods, confirming that leveraging DPP system is essential for enabling robust, non-destructive automated disassembly. Finally, the study demonstrates that an aggregated DPP query strategy is essential to maximise data completeness, ensuring that the retrieved information is sufficient to support automated disassembly. Digital product passport robotic disassembly image retrieval data completeness Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Under Review Version 1 posted Reviewers agreed at journal 02 May, 2026 Reviewers agreed at journal 30 Apr, 2026 Reviewers invited by journal 30 Apr, 2026 Editor assigned by journal 20 Apr, 2026 Submission checks completed at journal 09 Apr, 2026 First submitted to journal 30 Mar, 2026 You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-9264506","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":634700102,"identity":"e1987ea1-fde3-4a9c-bc08-72696c3212c2","order_by":0,"name":"Hao Qin","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAA3UlEQVRIiWNgGAWjYBACAygpJ8HA3AARkiBSi7EEAyNJWhgYEmcQrcWc/fABhjcFd9JnzkhsfMzbZpPHIN18AK8Wy560BMY5Bs9yZ0skNhvztqUVM8gcS8DvsAM5Bsw8Bodz50kktknznDmc2CCRY4Bfy/k3YC3pchKJ7b95zvwHasn/gF/LDYgtCdJAW5h5Kg6AbMGrA6jlWcLBOQaHDWf2PGyWnFORnNgmc4yQw5IPPnjz57C8xPHkgx/eGNgl9ks3P8BvDRAc4EHmsRFUDwI8hJWMglEwCkbBSAYAguRHDmJ7VaEAAAAASUVORK5CYII=","orcid":"","institution":"KU Leuven","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Hao","middleName":"","lastName":"Qin","suffix":""},{"id":634700104,"identity":"c0048cfa-a52b-4b08-b059-f525f722181e","order_by":1,"name":"Dillam J. Diaz-Romero","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"KU Leuven","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Dillam","middleName":"J.","lastName":"Diaz-Romero","suffix":""},{"id":634700107,"identity":"fcc6673d-6a51-48f9-8207-971254f18f4e","order_by":2,"name":"Wouter Sterkens","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"KU Leuven","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Wouter","middleName":"","lastName":"Sterkens","suffix":""},{"id":634700108,"identity":"c82efbb9-870f-4852-ab2b-f8c78eb923d6","order_by":3,"name":"Anthonie Coopman","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"KU Leuven","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Anthonie","middleName":"","lastName":"Coopman","suffix":""},{"id":634700110,"identity":"d0780de6-be2b-44cd-b51b-c13ac9e7ea01","order_by":4,"name":"Yifan Wu","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"KU Leuven","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Yifan","middleName":"","lastName":"Wu","suffix":""},{"id":634700113,"identity":"55602f37-f00a-4ba4-87d6-3b4c8a316f94","order_by":5,"name":"Chuangchuang Zhou","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"KU Leuven","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Chuangchuang","middleName":"","lastName":"Zhou","suffix":""},{"id":634700116,"identity":"ff471af6-1a33-4b86-a931-7581fdebab0b","order_by":6,"name":"Jef R. Peeters","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"KU Leuven","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Jef","middleName":"R.","lastName":"Peeters","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2026-03-30 08:54:56","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-9264506/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-9264506/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":108807712,"identity":"98cfbf04-bd07-41b6-ae49-1ac85ee256b4","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2026-05-08 15:31:17","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":890879,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"BenchmarkingImageRetrievalandDataCompletenessforLeveragingDigitalProductPassportsforHiddenFastenerLocalisationforRoboticDemanufacturing.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-9264506/v1_covered_a76e1f5b-2b6f-4088-913c-b8f25f024c8f.pdf"}],"financialInterests":"No competing interests reported.","formattedTitle":"Benchmarking Image Retrieval and Data Completeness for Leveraging Digital Product Passports for Hidden Fastener Localisation for Robotic Demanufacturing","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":false,"hideJournal":false,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"journal-of-remanufacturing","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"externalIdentity":"rman","sideBox":"Learn more about [Journal of Remanufacturing](http://link.springer.com/journal/13243)","snPcode":"13243","submissionUrl":"https://submission.nature.com/new-submission/13243/3","title":"Journal of Remanufacturing","twitterHandle":"","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":true,"editorialSystem":"em","reportingPortfolio":"Springer Hybrid","inReviewEnabled":true,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":false},"keywords":"Digital product passport, robotic disassembly, image retrieval, data completeness","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-9264506/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-9264506/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003cp\u003eEfficient demanufacturing of Waste of Electric and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) is currently hindered by the unstructured nature of waste streams, the imperfection of computer vision systems, and the inability to detect hidden components, such as fasteners concealed under labels. To address this, a novel Digital Product Passport (DPP) system is developed that integrates real-time computer vision with historical product data stored in DPP. The study demonstrates how to use DPP system to complete a demanufacturing task, especially in case of hidden screws.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe research presents three primary contributions. First, the robustness of the image retrieval pipeline for product model identification is benchmarked across three distinct E-waste datasets: Hard Disk Drives (HDDs), bike batteries, and laptops. Results indicate that retrieval is highly reliable for products with distinct physical features and less model variety (HDDs and batteries), and more challenging for many model variety products (laptops). Furthermore, a comparison of feature extraction models shows that Vision Transformers (ViT) outperforms ResNet50 on the laptop dataset. Second, a case study on HDD disassembly evaluates the effectiveness of the proposed DPP system in localizing hidden screws. By fusing retrieved DPP information with YOLOv8-based perception, the system successfully identifies fasteners hidden under plastic covers. Experimental results show that the DPP-assisted approach significantly improves screw detection recall from 0.76 to 0.93 compared to vision-only methods, confirming that leveraging DPP system is essential for enabling robust, non-destructive automated disassembly. Finally, the study demonstrates that an aggregated DPP query strategy is essential to maximise data completeness, ensuring that the retrieved information is sufficient to support automated disassembly.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003c/p\u003e","manuscriptTitle":"Benchmarking Image Retrieval and Data Completeness for Leveraging Digital Product Passports for Hidden Fastener Localisation for Robotic Demanufacturing","msid":"","msnumber":"","nonDraftVersions":[{"code":1,"date":"2026-05-08 11:49:49","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-9264506/v1","editorialEvents":[{"type":"communityComments","content":0},{"type":"reviewerAgreed","content":"124174653322056295593048801955636681519","date":"2026-05-02T20:40:46+00:00","index":"hide","fulltext":""},{"type":"reviewerAgreed","content":"294800424597333728554501887279552193629","date":"2026-04-30T13:55:26+00:00","index":"hide","fulltext":""},{"type":"reviewersInvited","content":"","date":"2026-04-30T09:29:23+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"editorAssigned","content":"","date":"2026-04-20T12:18:29+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"checksComplete","content":"","date":"2026-04-10T01:27:55+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"submitted","content":"Journal of Remanufacturing","date":"2026-03-30T08:46:56+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""}],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"journal-of-remanufacturing","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"externalIdentity":"rman","sideBox":"Learn more about [Journal of Remanufacturing](http://link.springer.com/journal/13243)","snPcode":"13243","submissionUrl":"https://submission.nature.com/new-submission/13243/3","title":"Journal of Remanufacturing","twitterHandle":"","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":true,"editorialSystem":"em","reportingPortfolio":"Springer Hybrid","inReviewEnabled":true,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":false}}],"origin":"","ownerIdentity":"068ad227-d0b9-4e07-817f-8e33ce8970a7","owner":[],"postedDate":"May 8th, 2026","published":true,"recentEditorialEvents":[{"type":"reviewerAgreed","content":"124174653322056295593048801955636681519","date":"2026-05-02T20:40:46+00:00","index":26,"fulltext":""},{"type":"reviewerAgreed","content":"294800424597333728554501887279552193629","date":"2026-04-30T13:55:26+00:00","index":24,"fulltext":""},{"type":"reviewersInvited","content":"15","date":"2026-04-30T09:29:23+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""}],"rejectedJournal":[],"revision":"","amendment":"","status":"under-review","subjectAreas":[],"tags":[],"updatedAt":"2026-05-08T11:49:49+00:00","versionOfRecord":[],"versionCreatedAt":"2026-05-08 11:49:49","video":"","vorDoi":"","vorDoiUrl":"","workflowStages":[]},"version":"v1","identity":"rs-9264506","journalConfig":"researchsquare"},"__N_SSP":true},"page":"/article/[identity]/[[...version]]","query":{"redirect":"/article/rs-9264506","identity":"rs-9264506","version":["v1"]},"buildId":"XKTyCvWXoU3ODBz1xrDgd","isFallback":false,"isExperimentalCompile":false,"dynamicIds":[84888],"gssp":true,"scriptLoader":[]}