In 1993, Daimler-Benz embarked upon a feasibility study for the Smart town car. The ecologistics challenge was to create a modular production facility and develop a networked industrial complex to meet the demanding e...
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In 1993, Daimler-Benz embarked upon a feasibility study for the Smart town car. The ecologistics challenge was to create a modular production facility and develop a networked industrial complex to meet the demanding environmental, logistical and constructional requirements. The author gives an overview of production of the Smart facility at Hambach, Germany.
A process model for part assembly, using robotic manipulators, is introduced. Part-bringing, in an environment that contains obstacles, is accomplished by combining a neural network control strategy, co-ordinating wit...
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A process model for part assembly, using robotic manipulators, is introduced. Part-bringing, in an environment that contains obstacles, is accomplished by combining a neural network control strategy, co-ordinating with a fuzzy optimal process model to bring a part from an initial position to a destination (target) for the purpose of part insertion. Fuzzy set theory, well suited to the management of uncertainty, is introduced to address the uncertainty problem associated with the part-bringing procedure. The degree of uncertainty associated with the part-bringing is used as an optimality criterion, or cost function, e.g. minimum fuzzy entropy, for a specific task execution. The proposed technique is applicable not only to a wide range of robotic tasks including pick and place operations, but also to the control of unmanned aircraft or missiles.
The power and simplicity of a new generation of machine vision systems have done much to overcome the automotive industry's reluctance to invest in this technology. Most vision applications in the automotive indus...
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The power and simplicity of a new generation of machine vision systems have done much to overcome the automotive industry's reluctance to invest in this technology. Most vision applications in the automotive industry are for machine guidance or quality inspections. In quality control inspections, the vision system determines whether parts or sub-assemblies are acceptable or defective and then directs motion control equipment to reject or accept them. Machine guidance applications use vision systems to improve the accuracy and speed of assembly robots and automated materials handling equipment in several areas. The most advanced machine vision systems enable a robot to locate the part or sub-assembly on which it is working, regardless of rotation or scale. In most applications, machine vision provides real-time data and live feedback to guide robots as they go through programmed sequences of operations. The new generation of vision systems can be trained to look for detailed patterns and shapes that match templates for correctly made subassemblies. Powerful pattern recognition capabilities allow vision systems to find missing material, chips, scratches, dents, misplaced markings and a variety of other flaws. As well as ensuring the quality of finished parts and products, they also enable manufacturers to reduce costs by eliminating defective pieces before wasting additional material and time on them.
Fixturing is an important requirement for many manufacturing and assembly operations. If flexible manufacturing and assembly systems (FMS and FAS) are to be truly flexible, then the fixturing must also be flexible. Th...
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Fixturing is an important requirement for many manufacturing and assembly operations. If flexible manufacturing and assembly systems (FMS and FAS) are to be truly flexible, then the fixturing must also be flexible. This article presents a system for computer-aided design and analysis of reconfigurable fixtures in robotic assembly. The fixturing system employs a number of adjustable fixture modules that are set up, adjusted and changed automatically by the assembly robot without human intervention. The design of the fixture layout is performed interactively on a commercially available computer-aided design (CAD) package. The development of a dedicated software program to perform kinematic analysis of the fixture layout, using the information retrieved from the CAD database, is presented. A strategy to build various fixture layouts to locate and hold workpieces of various shapes and sizes using the same set of fixture modules is also presented.
The paper describes the elements of a flexible assembly system which is being constructed to investigate methods of integrating robots within production systems. Also described are the features of ‘intelligent’ inte...
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The paper describes the elements of a flexible assembly system which is being constructed to investigate methods of integrating robots within production systems. Also described are the features of ‘intelligent’ interfaces which have been designed to allow robots and machines to be linked, via a local area network, to supervisory computers. The interfaces are based on the ISO model of open-system connection and include MAP data packets so that they offer a standard and transferable solution to the problem of integrating computer-based shop-floor and management functions.
Increasingly there is a need to equip robots with intelligent sensing so that they can detect and compensate for discrepancies between what they have been taught and what is required in the real world. This enables th...
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Increasingly there is a need to equip robots with intelligent sensing so that they can detect and compensate for discrepancies between what they have been taught and what is required in the real world. This enables them to allow for variations in the immediate manufacturing environment (e.g. component variation) and also relaxes the requirements for precision in the hardware and the accuracy of teaching. The authors describe their work on semiautonomous adaptable units for use in assembly. The units are of integral design equipped with sensors, local processing power and local actuation. They are intended to be placed on the machinery and automatic assembly, which may have either hard-automation or robotic form.
The use of robotic welding in industry is well documented. Further automation will involve the use of sensors with feedback to carry out such tasks as seam tracking or weld penetration monitors. The paper describes a ...
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The use of robotic welding in industry is well documented. Further automation will involve the use of sensors with feedback to carry out such tasks as seam tracking or weld penetration monitors. The paper describes a seam tracker for TIG welding. It uses a standard black and white television camera to view the light reflected from the components being welded. The light source is a halogen tungsten lamp. High-speed digitisation using a microcomputer enables rapid correction for any misalignment. All the components used are standard, so that a low-cost system may be produced.
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