Industrial Material Handling Research Articles

Simulation Model for Digital Twins of Pneumatic Vacuum Ejectors

AbstractIncreasing productivity, as well as flexibility, is required for the industrial production sector. To meet these challenges, concepts in the field of “Industry 4.0” are arising, such as the concept of Digital Twins. Vacuum handling systems are a widespread technology for material handling in industry and face the same challenges and opportunities. In this field, a key issue is the lack of Digital Twins containing behavior models for vacuum handling systems and their components in different applications and use cases. A novel concept for modeling and simulating the fluidic behavior of pneumatic vacuum ejectors as key components of vacuum handling systems is proposed. In order to increase the simulation accuracy, the concept can access instance‐specific data of the used asset instead of object‐specific data. The model and the data are part of the Digital Twins of pneumatic vacuum ejectors, which shall be able to be combined with other components to represent a Digital Twin of entire vacuum handling systems. The proposed model is validated in an experimental test setup and in an industrial application delivering sufficiently accurate results.

Universal Turning Forklift

Abstract: We describe the development of robotic forklift intended to operate alongside human personnel, handling palletized materials within existing, busy, semi-structured storage facilities. The main objective of this project is to fabricate a Mechanical forklift for material handling in industries. In this project a Universal Turning Forklift is fabricated which runs to carry material from one place to another by using Android App. To use forklift, it requires one spot guide to guide a forklift driver because of less visibility. This project discusses how to integrate Android App based remote controlled technology into a forklift to make it wireless to increase visibility and human safety. Along with this the forklift designed in this project can move in a semi-circular path from left to right hence it becomes more easier for the user to setup the warehouse efficiently. Keywords: Forklift, Project, Fabricated, Integrated Android App, Human Safety

How to reduce the impedance for pHRI: Admittance control or underactuation?

Many applications of physical human–robot interaction (pHRI) seek to minimize the impedance felt by the operator. For large-scale operations, such as industrial material handling, two architectures have been proposed. The first uses a rigid robotic manipulator with force sensing and an admittance controller, such as the class of Intelligent Assist Devices (IADs). The second utilizes an underactuated macro-mini manipulator system, such as the uMan Assist Device. Given an application with a large payload, which of these two systems can offer the lowest inertia interaction? This work analyzes the effective inertia experienced by the operator in each of the systems. It compares the conditions under which each provides the lightest manipulation, conditions that depend on the payload as well as the frequency of manipulation. The results are validated on a large overhead robotic system configured alternatively in each of the configurations.

EFFECT OF LOAD ON GAIT

Introduction: Material Handling is one of the major activities performed by the workforce in the present scenario in industries. Our study aims to do the experiment with 22 different subjects and to collect the data using MiniSun IDEEA3 Gait Analysis instrument and to analyse the parameters Speed, EE and Stride length and find preventable measures to reduce fall risk. Material and Methods: Gait analysis experiment has been done with the subject with backpack and double pack with load of 5 kg and 10 kg. In the Industrial scenario, from construction site to cement industry, workers are carrying the load from one place to another. For instance, the typical scenario includes the transferring the load in backpack. All experiments were done in the institutegymnastic. Our study methodology deals with the conditions of experimentation, how sensors, recorder and sub recorder attached to subject body and how its working. This includes subject experiment conditions such as subject is walking on even surface and stairs with 5 kg backpack, 10 kg backpack and 5 kg double pack. When subject walks, data gets collected in recorder from sub recorder through wirelessly. Results: When subject walks with 10 kg backpack load gait parameters shows the worst condition i.e. prone to fall. However, if 10 kg backpack load distributed to 5 kg each side front and rear i.e. called double pack result shows a reliable change i.e. a safe limit to prevent the fall risk. So rather than preferring a backpack, double pack would be recommendable to prevent fall risk. The reason behind speed reduction is shorter steps with carrying load as compare to no load, which fails to maintain minimum unimpaired walking speed 55m/min. But greater than 75 m/min suggested to exceptional life expectancy. But not prove to be best in reduced fall risk while carrying. When load increases, speed get decreases, energy expenditure increases, stride length decreases. These all-gait parameters indicate a significant change that is the major cause of fall during manual material handling in industries. Conclusion: So those with high BMI if carry material in manual material handling industries, the Speed and EE will be major and considerable factor to fall. Thus Speed and energy expenditure needs to be investigated with Influence of walking speed, external load, energy expenditure and power on gait characteristics, to find the relationship between the risk of injury to kinematic changes due to external load on speed, energy expenditure and power.

Benefits of Ergonomics in Industrial Material handling

Benefits of Ergonomics in Industrial Material handling

A review of studies on the evaluation of manual handling with different methods in Iran from 1389 to 1399

Introduction: Nowadays, most industries in Iran constitute a large proportion of workers' activities in Manual Material Handling. Musculoskeletal disorders are areas of erosive and inflammatory conditions that occur in the form of pain and discomfort in the muscles, tendons, ligaments, joints, peripheral nerves, blood vessels. Working hours, absenteeism, increasing work restrictions, job changes and disability and impose many economic consequences on the individual, organization, and society. Materials and Methods: The present study was conducted to review the studies of Manual Material Handling by different methods in Iran from 2010 to 2020. The general process of the present study included searching for articles invalid national and international databases. After selecting the articles, the necessary information was extracted and analyzed. In general, based on the inclusion criteria, only studies that used NIOSH, KIM, SNOOK, 3DSSPP, WISHA, UTAH, MAC, ART, and manual handling regulations in Iran, were reviewed. Results: 15 English articles and 50 Persian articles were found, of which 44 articles were deleted based on the exclusion criteria, and 21 articles were selected for this study and entered into the final analysis. Conclusion: The highest number of studies was conducted in Hamedan, Tehran, Mallard, Shiraz, and Qazvin, respectively NIOSH, KIM and 3DSSPP were the three methods used with the highest number of studies in the field of Manual Material Handling in industry. Most workplace studies were conducted in the casting, food industry, tile industry, and hospital.

Parallel Manipulation Based on Stick-Slip Motion of Vibrating Platform

The majority of the industrial material handling mechanisms used in the manipulation or assembly of mesoscale objects are slow and require precision programming and tooling, mainly because they are based on sequential robotic pick-n-place operations. This paper presents problem formation, modeling, and analysis of a sensorless parallel manipulation technique for mimicking real-systems that transfer mesoscale objects based on the vibration of inline-feeder machines. Unlike common stick-slip models that utilize a “mass-on-moving-belt” and avoid totality of the motion, the research obtains differential equations in order to describe the combined physics of stick-slip dynamics of an object traveling along an oscillating platform under smooth and dry friction conditions. The nonlinear dynamics are solved numerically to explain the effect of system parameters on the stick-slip motion. The research provides empirical models based on frequency-analysis identification to describe the total linear speed of an object to an input force. The results are illustrated and tested by time–response, phase plots, and amplitude response diagrams, which compare very favorably with results obtained by numerical simulation of the equation of motion, and this suggests that the vibration of the platform is independent of stick-slip motion when the mass of the object being transported is small relative to the mass of the system.

On the state liveness of some classes of guidepath-based transport systems and its computational complexity

Guidepath-based transport systems is a pertinent abstraction for the traffic that is generated in many contemporary applications, ranging from industrial material handling and robotics, to computer game animations and the qubit transport systems employed in quantum computing. A particular problem that must be effectively addressed for the systematic operation of these systems, is the preservation of their “liveness”, i.e., the preservation of the ability of the system agents to complete their current assignments and engage successfully in similar assignments in the future operation of the system. This paper provides a systematic and comprehensive characterization of the notion of “liveness” for the entire spectrum of the aforementioned transport systems, and it further investigates the implications of this characterization for the deployment of maximally permissive liveness-enforcing supervision for the underlying traffic. It is shown that the computational complexity of the sought supervisors is contingent upon certain structural and operational attributes of the considered transport systems, that define, thus, a useful taxonomy for these environments. The paper proposes effective and efficient liveness-enforcing supervisors for each member of this taxonomy. Furthermore, the concluding part of the paper indicates how the obtained results can be integrated in a broader control framework for the considered transport systems that will also address time-related performance considerations for these environments, like the maximization of their throughput.

Efficient generation of performance bounds for a class of traffic scheduling problems

This work seeks to develop (lower) performance bounds for a traffic scheduling problem that arises in many application contexts, ranging from industrial material handling and robotics to computer game animations and quantum computing. In a first approach, the sought bounds are obtained by applying the Lagrangian relaxation method to a MIP formulation of the considered scheduling problem that is based on a natural notion of “state” for the underlying traffic system and an analytical characterization of all the possible trajectories of this state over a predefined time horizon. But it is also shown that the corresponding “dual” problem that provides these bounds, can be transformed to a linear program (LP) with numbers of variables and constraints polynomially related to the size of the underlying traffic system and the employed time horizon in the MIP formulation. Furthermore, the derived LP formulation constitutes the LP relaxation of a second MIP formulation for the considered scheduling problem that can be obtained through an existing connection between this problem and the “integral multi-commodity flow” (IMCF) model of network optimization theory. Finally, the theoretical developments of the paper are complemented with a computational part that demonstrates the efficacy of the pursued methods in terms of the quality of the derived bounds, and their computational tractability.

ระบบการจัดการหุ่นยนต์หลายตัวสำหรับการขนถ่ายวัสดุในโรงงานอุตสาหกรรม

ระบบการจัดการหุ่นยนต์หลายตัวสำหรับการขนถ่ายวัสดุในโรงงานอุตสาหกรรม

Design and Manufacturing of Pneumatic Vehicle for Industrial Purpose

Compressed air as a source of energy in different uses in general and as a non-polluting fuel in compressed air vehicles has attracted scientists and engineers for centuries. Efforts are being made by many developers and manufacturers to master the compressed air vehicle technology in all respects for its earliest use by the mankind. Nowadays, almost every industry is trying to develop light and efficient vehicles. Today, all the the vehicles running on conventional & non-conventional fuels are known for producing a large amount of harmful gases like CO2 , SO2 , NO2 , etc. which acts increases global warming. The motto of our project is to design & fabricate vehicle running on air pressure for material handling in industries and reduce power consumption. It is rear wheel drive. We develop the concept of pneumatic vehicle from pedal operated tricycle. The vehicle looks like three wheeler in which manual operation is replaced by compressed air pressure. The following report gives a brief description of how a compressed air vehicle using this technology was made. While developing of this vehicle, control of compressed air parameters like temperature, energy density, requirement of input power, energy release and emission control have to be mastered for the development of a safe, light and cost effective compressed air vehicle in near future.

Some Analysis of Automated Guided Vehicle

AGV is mostly used in industrial application to move material around manufacturing facility. Here assembling of AGV is done by using components like chassis, wheels, wiper motors, gear motor, LED sensors, tactile sensor, actuators etc. AGV is designed with the help of electrical design of sensors which are used to control AGV during operation when it is moved on guided path. AGV design was modelled and simulated using catiaV5 software .Design was modelled and drawing preparation was done using catiaV5.Static analysis was done for stress using catiaV5 .Here principal stresses at different point were obtained having different deflection .Graphs are plotted for principal stress verses deflection and Navigation performance of AGV uses electric motor .Thus AGV is used to pick up the object with proper gripping system. A navigation system has been developed using sensors. AGV contains software and hardware components and is primarily used for material handling in industries. Static analysis was done for stress using catiaV5. Graphs are plotted for principal stress vs. deflection. The same analysis can be done for different material depending on loading condition. Stress analysis concept can be used to study dynamic analysis. Optimization of AGV can be possible by using different material. To evaluate the performance simulations were conducted using catiaV5 maintaining a constant setup inputs all over. IndexTerms:Catia,navigation,optimization

Smooth Track-Keeping and Real Time Obstacle Detection Algorithm and its PID Controller Implementation for an Automated Wheeled Line Following Robot

Line following automated robots is extensively used in industries for smooth running of production. This paper presents a simple and effective solution for path tracking problem for a wheeled automated mobile robot which can be used for material handling in industries. A PID controller has been used for controlling the robot which is capable of moving safely by smooth track-keeping in partially structured environment without any collision with static or moving objects. The purpose of the project is to build a mobile robot which will provide fast, smooth, accurate and safe movement in any given line or track. A straight or wavy line would be simple to follow whereas aT-junction, 90 degree bends, acute angle bends and grid junctions would be difficult to navigate through. This is due to the physical kinematics constraints which are limited to motor response, position and turning radius of the robot. A line sensor configuration has been proposed to improve the navigation reliability of the mobile robot which uses differential drive system. A dynamic algorithm has been developed for detecting and following a specified line which ensures the reliable and safe movement of the robot.

A Mechatronics and Material Handling Systems Laboratory: Experiments and Case Studies

Industrial mechatronic systems integrate technologies from a variety of engineering disciplines to create solutions to challenging manufacturing problems. The material handling industry utilizes mechatronics to move, track, and manipulate items in factories and distribution centers. Material handling systems are a logical choice of study, due to their use of multiple mechatronic elements. This article describes mechatronic experiments and projects in a new course. Topical coverage includes sensors, actuators, PLCs, robotics, pneumatics, hydraulics, human factors, teamwork, leadership, and project management. A series of eight laboratory experiments have been created to introduce PLCs, robotics, electric circuits, and data acquisition fundamentals. In-depth case studies synthesize the technologies and interpersonal skills together to create a flexible material handling system. The most significant student outcome is the successful completion of a course project that required individuals to apply mechatronics concepts and technology in a multi-disciplinary team setting to solve industrial material handling tasks.

Noncontact energy transfer system using immittance converter

AbstractNoncontact energy transfer systems are widely used in industrial material handling systems. This paper proposes a new noncontact energy transfer system using a tuned pickup coil and an immitance converter inductively coupled to a parallel transmission line excited by a high‐frequency constant‐current source.In a noncontact energy transfer system which supplies continuous energy to movers by electromagnetic induction, the efficiency is low owing to low excitation impedance because of the wide air gap of the magnetic core in the pickup coil. The excitation impedance can be increased by the resonance with a capacitor connected parallel to the pickup coil. The resonant pickup coil works as a high‐frequency constant‐current source for the load. We propose using an immittance converter to transform the high‐frequency constant‐current source into a high‐frequency constant‐voltage source. Then, the high‐frequency constant‐voltage source is rectified into a constant‐voltage dc source, and supplies power to an inverter for motor driving.In this paper, the configuration of this new noncontact energy transfer system and its characteristics are described. The experimental results and simulation waveforms are also described. © 2001 Scripta Technica, Electr Eng Jpn, 136(4): 58–64, 2001

Feasibility of contact and noncontact material handling using traveling waves and transition characteristics

The feasibility of using traveling waves as a mechanism for industrial material handling is examined. A prototype was constructed to experimentally investigate the feasibility of the proposed method. Two kinds of transport methods are investigated: frictional drive and acoustic levitation. Experimental transport speed characteristics are presented. The transition characteristics from acoustic levitation to frictional drive are also experimentally examined.

Non-Contact Energy Transfer System Using Immittance Converter

Non-Contact Energy Transfer Systems are widely used in industrial material handling systems. This paper proposes a new Non-Contact Energy Transfer System using a tuned pick-up coil and an Immittance converter inductively coupled to a parallel transmission line excited by a high frequency constant current source.In a Non-Contact Energy Transfer System which supplies continuous energy to movers by electromagnetic induction, the efficiency is low owing to low excitation impedance because of the wide air gap of the magnetic core in the pick-up coil. The excitation impedance can be increased by the resonance with a capacitor connected parallel to the pick-up coil. The resonant pick-up coil works as a high frequency constant current source for the load. We propose using an Immittance converter to transform the high frequency constant current source into a high frequency constant voltage source. Then, the high frequency constant voltage source is rectified into a constant voltage DC source, and supplies power to an inverter for motor driving.In this paper, the configuration of this new Non-Contact Energy Transfer System and its characteristics are described. The experimental results and simulation waveforms are also described.

Biomechanical Computerized Simulation of Human Strength in Sagittal-Plane Activities

Abstract Modifications to an earlier biomechanical strength modeling procedure developed by Chaffin are presented, along with a series of strength prediction curves resulting from simulations typical in industrial material handling tasks. These families of curves predict human strength capabilities for performing general tasks (lifts, pushes and pulls) over a wide range of feasible body positions. Profile curves at the 50th and 95th percentile rankings for both male and female populations are presented.