Robotic Manufacturing Research Articles

Post-industrial robotics: exploring informed architectures in the post-digital era

The prototypes, made in collaboration with industrial partners, represent the results of transdisciplinary experiments in which environmental, structural and material performances inform the computational process and the robotics manufacturing. Fusta Robotica, is the result of a tectonic exploration deriving from the use of non-engineered material, Digital Urban Orchard is the formal expression of a complex functional program arising from the relationship amongst form (shape), function and context. The analysis of processes, in addition to the definition of the limits and potentialities of the design approach, opens the debate on the role of technological experimentation in the post-digital era, characterized by the process information that includes digital computation, materials and fabrication.

Reform and Innovation of Personnel Training Mode in Guangdong-Hong Kong Institute of Robotics

In order to cultivate the talent demand for the transformation and upgrading of the national industry, and in the context of "Industrial 4.0 Times" and "Machine Substitution", our university cooperates with the talent demand of Guangdong Province, the future national development strategy and cooperation with many well-known domestic and international independent innovation In the context of the establishment of the Guangdong-Hong Kong Institute of Robotics. Is committed to cultivating for the robot, intelligent equipment and modern manufacturing services professionals in the new model of the school to try. College to take innovative talents training mode, multi-professional integration of the collision, school-enterprise joint training, the whole project-driven teaching and international vision of innovative entrepreneurship education and other means, and strive to train a group of outstanding engineers, entrepreneurship "star", industry elite, industry leader talent.

Robots that interact with humans: a review of safety technologies and standards

PurposeThis paper aims to provide details of the safety considerations, technologies and standards associated with robots that interact with, or operate in proximity to, humans.Design/methodology/approachFollowing an introduction, this paper first considers collaborative robots and discusses their safety features and the new technical specification ISO/TS 15066, together with certain allied safety standards. It then discusses ISO 13482 and a range of assistive, personal care and service robots which comply with this and highlights new standards that are under development. Mobile warehouse and delivery robots are then considered, together with the safety technologies used and the associated standards. Finally, brief concluding comments are drawn.FindingsThe recent proliferation of robots that interact with humans or operate in proximity to them has led to the development of standards and specifications which seek to ensure safe operation. These allow robot manufacturers to design inherently safe products that will gain market acceptance and also help to inspire confidence among users. A number of new standards and specifications have been proposed or are being developed, and this trend is set to continue as new classes of robotic products emerge.Originality/valueAll manner of robots are being developed which interact with humans, and this provides details of the associated safety considerations, technologies and standards.

Balancing a robotic spot welding manufacturing line: An industrial case study

Resistance spot welding is an important procedure used in the automobile manufacturing industry. After stamping, sheets of metal are mostly welded together to build the car’s body. Many of the industrial robots found in assembly lines are spot welders. Process characteristics include accessibility limitations, the need to move between welding points and (when there are multiple robots per station) potential interferences between robots. The combination of such characteristics is not present in classical models for the assembly line balancing problem. In this paper, the balancing problem of robotic spot welding manufacturing lines is presented and modeled based on a real-world car factory on the outskirts of Curitiba, Brazil. The studied line has 42 robots that perform over 700 welding points on the later stages of the body-shop. The model was developed with Mixed Integer Linear Programming (MILP) techniques, validated with empirical data, and solved with a universal solver. The optimized balancing achieved a cycle time reduction of up to 6.6% compared to the as-is configurations. The total movement time was observed not to be necessarily minimized during the optimization process, implying that trade-offs exist between movement times and the number of welding points performed.

An under-actuated origami gripper with adjustable stiffness joints for multiple grasp modes

Under-actuated robots offer multiple degrees of freedom without much added complexity to the actuation and control. Utilizing adjustable stiffness joints in these robots allows us to control their stable configurations and their mode of interaction with the environment. In this paper, we present the design of tendon-driven robotic origami (robogami) joints with adjustable stiffness. The proposed designs allow us to place joints along any direction in the plane of the robot and in the normal direction to the plane. The layer-by-layer manufacturing of robogamis facilitates the design and manufacturing of robots with different arrangement of joints for different applications. We use thermally activated shape memory polymer to control the joint stiffness. The manufacturing of the polymer layer is compatible with the layer-by-layer manufacturing process of the robogamis which results in scalable and customizable robots. To demonstrate, we prototyped an under-actuated gripper with three fingers and only one input actuation. The grasp mode of the gripper is set by adjusting the configuration of the locked joints and modulating the stiffness of the active joints. We present a model to estimate the configuration and the contact forces of the gripper at different settings that will assist us in design and control of future generation of under-actuated robogamis.

Robotic lung cancer surgery: review of experience and costs.

Use of robot-assisted techniques is growing fast in several surgical disciplines, now including thoracic surgery. The paper reviews experience of robotic surgery to resect lung cancer and in particular analyzes data on the costs of these procedures in comparison to open surgery and video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS). Retrospective studies published over 14 years show that robotic surgery for lung cancer has the advantages of minimally invasive surgery for patients, and some advantages over VATS for the surgeon. Limited data indicate that oncological outcomes are comparable with those of VATS and open surgery, while lymph node dissection may be more radical. Other studies indicate that robotic surgery for lung cancer offers no advantages either in terms of costs or outcomes. The high costs of purchase, maintenance and consumables are a concern and continue to limit uptake of robot systems in thoracic surgery. Most studies-but not all-indicate that robotic surgery for lung cancer is more expensive than VATS and open surgery. However limited data also indicate that hospitals can make a profit from robotic thoracic surgery, as costs seem to be lower than reimbursements from paying bodies. Nevertheless robotic thoracic surgery is still too expensive for many public hospitals, particularly in low income countries. Entry of new surgical robot manufacturers onto the market will bring much-needed competition that may also lead to cost reduction.

Cloud robotics: a review of technologies, developments and applications

PurposeThis paper aims to provide an insight into the current state of cloud robotics developments, technology and applications.Design/methodology/approachFollowing a short introduction, this paper first considers the potential benefits of cloud robotics. It discusses cloud service providers and then considers a range of recent applications and developments involving humanoid, mobile and industrial robots. This is followed by details of some recent market entrants and their developments. Finally, brief concluding comments are drawn.FindingsCloud robotics is a rapidly developing technology made possible by the current ubiquitous internet connectivity and the growing number of powerful cloud computing services available. Benefits include access to big data sets, open-source algorithms, code and programmes, massively powerful parallel or grid computing and the sharing of information between robots. The technology has been applied successfully to humanoid, industrial, mobile and other classes of robots, often through direct collaborations between robot manufacturers and major IT companies. Several new companies have been established in very recent years to exploit the capabilities of cloud robotic technologies.Originality/valueCloud robotics is a highly topical and rapidly developing field, and this paper provides a detailed insight into recent developments and applications.

Improved parameter optimization method for complex assembly process in robotic manufacturing

PurposeHigh precision assembly processes using industrial robots require the process parameters to be tuned to achieve desired performance such as cycle time and first time through rate. Some researchers proposed methods such as design-of-experiments (DOE) to obtain optimal parameters. However, these methods only discuss how to find the optimal parameters if the part and/or workpiece location errors are in a certain range. In real assembly processes, the part and/or workpiece location errors could be different from batch to batch. Therefore, the existing methods have some limitations. This paper aims to improve the process parameter optimization method for complex robotic assembly process.Design/methodology/approachIn this paper, the parameter optimization process based on DOE with different part and/or workpiece location errors is investigated. An online parameter optimization method is also proposed.FindingsExperimental results demonstrate that the optimal parameters for different initial conditions are different and larger initial part and/or workpiece location errors will cause longer cycle time. Therefore, to improve the assembly process performance, the initial part and/or workpiece location errors should be compensated first, and the optimal parameters in production should be changed once the initial tool position is compensated. Experimental results show that the proposed method is very promising in reducing the cycle time in assembly processes.Research limitations/implicationsThe proposed method is practical without any limitation.Practical implicationsThe proposed technique is implemented and tested using a real industrial application, a valve body assembly process. Hence, the developed method can be directly implemented in production.Originality/valueThis paper provides a technique to improve the assembly efficiency by compensating the initial part location errors. An online parameter optimization method is also proposed to automatically perform the parameter optimization process without human intervention. Compared with the results using other methods, the proposed technology can greatly reduce the assembly cycle time.

Miniature Resonant Ambulatory Robot

This article describes the design, manufacture, and performance of a prototype miniature resonant ambulatory robot that uses piezoelectric actuators to achieve locomotion. Each leg is comprised of two piezoelectric bimorph benders, joined at the tip by a flexure and end effector. Combinations of amplitude and phase can be used to produce a wide range of motions including swinging and lifting. A lumped mass model previously developed is described as a design tool to tune the resonance modes of the end effector. The completed robot was driven with frequencies up to 500 Hz resulting in a maximum forward velocity of approximately 520 mm/s at 350 Hz. A frequency analysis was also performed to determine the effects of ground contact on the performance of the robot. This analysis showed a significant reduction in the resonance gain and frequency.

A Geometrical Modular Design for Handling of LPG Cylinders using Nested Kinematic Robotic Gripper

Objectives: Novel design of Robotic gripper by means of epicyclic gear arrangement and incorporation of this mechanism for quick and efficient handling of domestic LPG gas cylinders from supplier end to consumer end. Methods/Statistical Analysis: Many researchers and robot manufacturing companies highly concentrate the new design of grippers and invent the smart grippers which is operated by means of efficient mechanisms and advanced techniques. In this paper discusses the modular design of a new robotic gripper operated by means of the epicyclic gear arrangement. Findings: Presently, domestic fuel LPG cylinders are loaded and unloaded manually from trucks. Loading and unloading LPG cylinders is involving lots of labour and sometimes cause finger crush and other disability to the personnel. This invention is particularly useful in unloading and unloading of empty and filled gas cylinders from vehicles such as trucks in a desired pattern and ensures safety and efficient handling. A geometrical model is developed and this device is helpful to a large extent for the handling of LPG cylinders meant for domestic purpose and this device will serve for the quick disposal of LPG cylinders to the consumers and safety of personnel is considered. Automation of this device may lead to higher investment. To meet the low capital investment, this device has to be partially mechanized. Application/Improvements: Epicyclic gear train is used for speed reduction purpose only. In this novel design, actuation of grippers is made possible by placing a suitable gripper in the planet gears. Gripper is mounted in planet gear eccentrically. This gripper is specially designed for loading and unloading the domestic LPG cylinders from trucks. Grippers are arranged in a required pattern for bulk handling of Large number of LPG cylinders. Locking and unlocking of grippers with LPG cylinders is mechanised in a supporting frame.

Gene tagging in Physcomitrella patens: an addition to the genetic toolbox.

This article is a commentary on Vives et al., 212: 759–769.

Design optimization and robotic fabrication of tensile mesh structures: The development and simulation of a custom-made end-effector tool

This article presents an ongoing research, aiming to introduce a fabrication procedure for the development of tensile mesh systems. The purpose of current methodology is to establish an integrated approach that combines digital form-finding and robotic manufacturing processes by extracting data and information derived through elastic material behavior for physical implementation. This aspires to extend the capacity of robotically driven mechanisms to the fabrication of complex tensile structures and, at the same time, to reduce the defects that might occur due to the deformation of the elastic material. In this article, emphasis is given to the development of a custom-made end-effector tool, which is responsible to add elastic threads and create connections in the form of nodes. Based on additive fabrication logic, this process suggests the development of physical prototypes through a design optimization and tool-path verification.

Design and construction of an automatic syringe injection pump

Today, the world is witnessing more interest in robotics and their application in various fields, such as medicine. Enhancing accuracy, increasing speed of operation and reducing costs are the primary performance objectives in the improvements to design and manufacture of devices or robots. One of the best ways to achieve these aims is using devices or robots instead of human resources. The injection pump we designed and manufactured in this work is a type of robot that has applications in medicine and health centres. This device is used for patients who are unable to receive foods and drugs orally. By examining similar foreign devices in Ardebil health centres, studying their advantages and disadvantages, and researching health centre requirements for these devices, we designed and constructed such a device for the first time in this country. The most important items achieved in these investigations include time, accuracy, speed of drug injection and cost reduction. The shortest time we achieved using this device was approximately 6 s for 1 cc of drug or fluid. We also calculated the speed of injection for 1 cc of drug to be approximately 0.17 cc per second, which was an ideal value compared to that of similar foreign devices. In comparison to the cost of similar foreign devices, our device has a lower cost due to simplicity and high performance. To achieve these results, we designed a new device engine. In this design we used a three-step engine that has a different algorithm than similar devices. In this engine, every cc was injected in 2000 steps of the engine, and each step was 3 ms, achieving 6 s for each cc of injection.

Possibility of 3D Scanning Application in the Robotized Manufacturing Processes

Contribution describes selecting and applying appropriate deployment of 3D scanners for the implementation of tasks in the realization projects. Analyzes the methods of digitizing and indexing as well as the possibility of their use for handling tasks in robotics. Well it describes the selection of a suitable 3D scanner to solve specific project.

Efficient Implementation of Inverse Kinematics on a 6-DOF Industrial Robot using Conformal Geometric Algebra

This paper presents an implementation of the inverse kinematics (IK) solution for an industrial robot based on Conformal Geometric Algebra where the correct signs of the joint angles are extracted using the multivector coefficients and applying the forward kinematics. The solution presented is twice as fast as traditional IK algorithms implemented using matrix algebra, and more than 45 times faster than the IK provided by the robot manufacturer. The proposed solution has been successfully demonstrated and benchmarked in a 3-DOF motion compensation experiment. In addition to being efficient the presented solution requires less matrix operations than for the traditional IK.

Combining Planning and Simulation to Create Human Robot Cooperative Processes with Industrial Service Robots

The integration of lightweight robots and service robots into industrial work places forms the new area of industrial service robots characterized by the transformation of manual processes to human robot interactive processes. Still, it is highly difficult to decide which manual processes are qualified for automation or collaboration. Consequently, only few collaborative processes can be found in industry. The objective of the project MANUSERV is to support decisions towards this transfer by developing a tool that supports users to identify practical technical solutions. The tool is a combination of a planning system and a simulation system. The aim of the planning system is to select technically feasible solutions and generate task sequences that solve the problem. The simulation system verifies the proposed solution and evaluates it technically, economically, and ergonomically. Manufacturers of service robots can provide their service robot specifications to be included into the system selection process.

Simultaneous optimization of layout and task schedule for robotic cellular manufacturing systems

Multi-robot cellular manufacturing systems utilize several articulated industrial robots that cooperatively perform a large number of complex operations when assembling products. To enhance the system performance when designing layouts for such robotic cellular manufacturing systems, the positions of robots and other manufacturing system components must be appropriately determined by considering the sequence of tasks the robots conduct during the assembly process. This paper proposes a new multiobjective layout design optimization technique for robotic cellular manufacturing system layouts that can simultaneously determine the positions of manufacturing components and also task scheduling. First, in this paper, sequence-pair representation is used to specify layout design candidates that inherently avoid interference between assembly system components, and the use of dummy components is introduced to represent layout areas that provide necessary and appropriate spacing between manufacturing system components. In addition, task allocations for each robot are considered as discrete design variables. The design criteria for robot cellular manufacturing system layout designs are clarified and the layout design problem is formulated as a multiobjective optimization problem. To solve the optimization problem, a method based on a multiobjective genetic algorithm is proposed and numerical examples are provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.

Prototyping and Simulation of Robot Group Intelligence using Kohonen Networks.

Intelligent agents such as robots can form ad hoc networks and replace human being in many dangerous scenarios such as a complicated disaster relief site. This project prototypes and builds a computer simulator to simulate robot kinetics, unsupervised learning using Kohonen networks, as well as group intelligence when an ad hoc network is formed. Each robot is modeled using an object with a simple set of attributes and methods that define its internal states and possible actions it may take under certain circumstances. As the result, simple, reliable, and affordable robots can be deployed to form the network. The simulator simulates a group of robots as an unsupervised learning unit and tests the learning results under scenarios with different complexities. The simulation results show that a group of robots could demonstrate highly collaborative behavior on a complex terrain. This study could potentially provide a software simulation platform for testing individual and group capability of robots before the design process and manufacturing of robots. Therefore, results of the project have the potential to reduce the cost and improve the efficiency of robot design and building.

Flexible robotic manufacturing cell scheduling problem with multiple robots

By considering the loaded and empty moving tie of robots moving among loading station, machines and unloading station, the flexible robotic manufacturing cell scheduling problem with multiple robots is studied. An improved discrete particle swarm optimisation with genetic operator and random-heuristic initialisation method is created to minimise the makespan. In addition, a multi-robot scheduling strategy is proposed to minimise the displacement operation when inserting the transportation tasks. By exchanging the positions of critical operations, the neighbourhood structure is established to enhance the capacity of the algorithm to local search. After detailed algorithm design and description, we report the results of a computational study that provides evidence that the proposed optimisation-based approach delivers high-quality solutions against the well-known algorithms.

Reconfigurable industrial robots: A stochastic programming approach for designing and assembling robotic arms

Industrial robots undergo design and re-configuration processes to target extremely challenging precision and reliability performance with agile and efficient architectures. The need for such features currently prevent the exploitation of reconfigurable robotics in manufacturing. The current work presents an approach to design and configure reconfigurable robots for the high precision manufacturing industry. The work proposes a configuration algorithm that enables the identification of the robot architectures and the related reconfigurability features by selecting the type and number of robot modules to be implemented over time in order to better accomplish a number of production requirements. Particularly, assuming the robot will work by utilising a finite set of robotic modules, the algorithm determines the set of modules to form the arm and the ones to be allocated in the robot storage for possible usage over time. Results show a number of benefits such as a robotic chain with customised reaching and degrees of freedom with a reduced cost by performing an accurate module selection and configuration; this should lead the robot users to prefer reconfigurable robots to commercial rigid catalogue solutions proposed by robot manufacturers. An approach to build and configure robotic chains for Reconfigurable Industrial Robots.The Problem Formulation is based on Stochastic Programming Technique to match future evolutions of production requirements.A real industrial case studies proofs the actual benefits coming from reconfigurable robotics in manufacturing.