Some aspects regarding the selection of industrial robots in manufacturing or assembly processes

Abstract

The current period involves a short product life, associated with frequent changes in the product range. In order to cope with the new world economic conditions, a high degree of automation of production and assembly processes is required. As a result, industrial robots must also meet a new level of flexibility and versatility. It is now clear that it is very important to evaluate the performance as well as the safety characteristics, but especially the compatibility with the existing production system, as well as the compatibility with the possible evolution of the production system or even the substantial modification of the tasks of the industrial robot in a new production system, totally modified from the previous one. This requires the formulation of evaluation methods with relevant design metrics and quantitative methods based on simulations, which can support the mechanical designer of the robot, but especially the production system manager, to correlate the load-based performance characteristics, compatibility and safety of the industrial robot, taking into account the wide variety of possible solutions.