William Eakins

Robotic wheel loading process in automotive manufacturing automation

The paper aims to develop an automated wheel loading system in the trim-and-final assembly in automotive manufacturing. Currently most of the trim-and-final assemblies are still done manually since the production lines are typically moving randomly. Industrial robots are hardly used to perform any assembly tasks on the randomly changing environments because it is difficult for conventional industrial robots to adjust to any sort of change. Therefore, more intelligent industrial robotic system has to be developed to adopt the random motion of the moving production line for the wheel loading process. This paper presents an intelligent robotics system that performs the wheel loading process while the car is moving randomly with the production line using a synergic combination of visual servoing and force control technology. The developed intelligent robotic technology has been successfully implemented to assembly the wheel onto the car. This practical solution of performing wheel loading on the moving production line, which is not available on the current industrial robot market, can save a lot of money and increase the assembly quality for automotive manufacturing. Since the developed platform is based on the synergic combination of visual servoing and force control technology, it can be used in other areas, such as seam tracking, battery loading and seat loading etc.

Assembly on moving production line based on sensor fusion

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to develop an intelligent robot assembly system for the moving production line. Moving production lines are widely used in many manufacturing factories, including automotive and general industries. Industrial robots are hardly used to perform any tasks on the moving production lines. One of the main reasons is that it is difficult for conventional industrial robots to adjust to any sort of change. Therefore, more intelligent industrial robotic systems have to be developed to adopt the random motion of the moving production lines. This paper presents an intelligent robotics system that performs an assembly process while the object is moving, using synergic combination of visual servoing and force control technology.Design/methodology/approach – The developed intelligent robotic system includes some rules to ensure the success of the assembly processes. Also visual servoing and force control are used to deal with the random motion of the moving objects. Since the objec...

Flexible assembly automation using industrial robots

Industrial robots used to perform assembly tasks are still a small portion of total robot sales each year. One of the main reasons is that it is difficult for conventional industrial robots to adjust to any sort of change. Therefore, more intelligent industrial robotic systems are attracting more and more attentions. This paper discusses an intelligent robotics system that performs an assembly process while the object is moving using visual and force servoing. The wheel loading process, which assemblies the wheel into the wheel hub of a vehicle on a moving assembly line, is used as an example to demonstrate the developed technology. A working system has been set up and experiments of loading wheels onto the wheel hub have been implemented and performed successfully. The experimental results demonstrate that the developed technology can be used for assembly while the assembly line is moving randomly. Check sample for key words. Most of them have list of key words.

Lead-through robot teaching

This paper presents a lead-through method and device for industrial robots and more particularly the design and calibration of a portable lead-through teaching device. Most industrial robots are programmed by a teach-and-playback approach. In some applications, maneuvering robots using the joystick or keypad on the teach pendant along the desired path is not easy or intuitive. To solve this problem, lead-through teaching methodologies have been developed by researchers from both academia and industries for more efficient and intuitive teaching of discrete point or continuous-path robot programs. We developed a portable lead-through teaching device, which is designed to be calibrated by moving the device to predetermined reference poses.

The challenges of integrating an industrial robot on a mobile platform

This paper provides a description of a uniquely mounted industrial robot. The described configuration includes an IRB6620 industrial robot with a tool changer and multiple tools that are installed on a highly customized truck chassis. Industrial robots are typically anchored to a shop floor which would normally limit the operational range of industrial robotics and require that all parts and materials be delivered to the robot. While this is normal and practical in instances where systems are structured to handle high volume part demand, it inherently limits the rapid mobility of a system. Such mobility would also be limited by the typical supply requirements of industrial equipment, such as process data communication, power, fluids, and compressed air or other gasses. However, new market requests have emerged for industrial robotics that prompted this particular in-house development of a mobile and uniquely self sufficient robotic arm platform. This wheeled vehicular platform is able to travel any reasonably navigable terrain, including off road, and is reliant solely on its own generated power or otherwise carried supplies. This paper presents the prototype development of such a platform that is self sufficient for electrical power, as well as compressed air from on board sources. This installation has been successfully developed to carry out various demonstration tasks by use of interchangeable tooling. This solution provides a mobile platform for an industrial robot which could be used in any location as long it is accessible to the mobile platform.

Ultra-flexible production systems for automated factories

Conveyor based transportation systems are used in today manufacturing environments. The main concept we introduce in this paper is using mobile platforms to move parts, tools and fixtures between workstations in a manufacturing environment instead of conveyors. A conveyor-based production system is a fixed transportation system, hard mounted and not reconfigurable, any change in the conveyors path is costly, time-consuming and difficult. Mobile platforms allow for a more flexible manufacturing environment as it only requires a change in the software to reroute the transportations paths and accommodate the changes to the production flow and workstations. This concept paper addresses two objectives: 1) describe some of the existing mobile platform used in industry today 2) introduce the concepts and a simulation of the ultra-flexible production system.