Optimization of end-of-life good disassembly using an Ant Colony System

In a modern productive scenario the problem represented by the tons of scraps daily produced in the industrialized countries is often face by recycling. In this paper a contribution to the improvement of the recycling process performed by the disassembly of end-of-life widely diffused goods is proposed. An optimization methodology named “Ant Colony Optimization” (ACO) is proposed as an innovative tool for approaching the problem of detecting the best way in disassembling goods for recycling purposes. The implementation details have been presented, as well as the application in four meaningful case studies represented by typical widely diffused goods.