Abstract
Vacuum-based handling is widely used in industrial production systems, particularly for hand-ling of sheet metal parts. The process design for such handling tasks is mostly based on approximate calculations and best-practice experience. Due to the lack of detailed knowledge about the parameters that significantly influence the seal and force transmission behavior of vacuum grippers, these uncertainties are encountered by oversizing the gripping system by a defined safety margin. A model-based approach offers the potential to overcome this limitation and to dimension the gripping system based on a more exact prediction of the expected maximum loads and the resulting gripper deformation. In this work, we introduce an experiment-based modeling method that considers the dynamic deformation behavior of vacuum grippers in interaction with the specific gripper-object combination. In addition, we demonstrate that for these specific gripper-object combinations the gripper deformation is reversible up to a certain limit. This motivates to deliberately allow for a gripper deformation within this stability range. Finally, we demonstrate the validity of the proposed modeling method and give an outlook on how this method can be implemented for robot trajectory optimization and, based on that, enable an increase of the energy efficiency of vacuum-based handling of up to 85%.
Highlights
Automated handling of parts, which adds up to about 50 % of all robot-guided processes in production environments [1] and usually even exceeds the time used for actual machining [2], is often realized by means of vacuum-based handling techniques [3], in particular in the automotive field and for packaging tasks [2, 4]
In extension of the already pre-sent work, this model approach describes the gripper deformation due to axial and radial stress as well as it considers the influence of the specific gripper-object combination and its influence on sealing and force transmission
An increase in the pressure hysteresis by 100 mbar enables a relative reduction in energy consumption of 10%
Summary
Automated handling of parts, which adds up to about 50 % of all robot-guided processes in production environments [1] and usually even exceeds the time used for actual machining [2], is often realized by means of vacuum-based handling techniques [3], in particular in the automotive field and for packaging tasks [2, 4]. As major research on energy efficient compressed air generation and distribution [8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15] as well as on the optimisation of ejector performance and efficiency was shown [7, 16,17,18], there is currently a lack of generally applicable methods for the design of vacuum-based handling processes. The process design for vacuum-based handling tasks is usually based on prior experience and best practice knowledge. Uncertainties such as leakage or the unknown force transmission behavior of vacuum grippers make it necessary to roughly estimate the process-specific loads and oversize the system by a defined safety margin.
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