Robotics Applications in Manufacturing
Robotics Applications in Manufacturing
Robotics in Manufacturing
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Robotics in Manufacturing
An industrial robot is defined as “an automatically controlled, reprogrammable,
multipurpose manipulator programmable in three or more axes, which may be either fixed in
place or mobile for use in industrial automation applications.”
Multi-shift operation
In manual operations requiring second and third shifts, substitution of a robot provides a much
faster financial payback than a single shift operation. Instead of replacing one worker, the robot
replaces two or three workers.
Infrequent changeovers
Most batch or job shop operations require a changeover of the physical workplace between one
job and the next. The time required to make the changeover is non-productive time because
parts are not being made. Consequently, robots have traditionally been easier to justify for
relatively long production runs where changeovers are infrequent.
Arc welding
Industrial robots can also be used to automate the arc welding process. The cell consists of the
robot, the welding apparatus (power unit, controller, welding tool, and wire feed mechanism),
and a fixture that positions the components for the robot. The fixture might be mechanized with
one or two axes so that it can present different portions of the work to the robot for welding
(the term positioner is used for this type of fixture). The robot used in arc welding must be
capable of continuous path control. Jointed arm robots consisting of six joints are frequently
used.
Spray coating
Robot applications include spray coating of automobile car bodies, appliances, engines, and
other parts; spray staining of wood products; and spraying of porcelain coatings on bathroom
fixtures. The robot must be capable of continuous path control to accomplish the smooth
motion sequences required in spray coating.
Assembly
Assembly involves the combining of two or more parts to form a new entity, called a
subassembly or assembly. The most appealing application of industrial robots for assembly
involves situations in which a mix of similar models are produced in the same work cell or
assembly line. Examples of these kinds of products include electric motors, small appliances,
and various other small mechanical and electrical products.
Inspection
Inspections accomplish the following functions:
• making sure that a given process has been completed,
• ensuring that parts have been assembled as specified, and
• identifying flaws in raw materials and finished parts.
Inspection tasks performed by robots can be divided into the following two cases:
Collaborative Robots
These applications involve robots and humans working together to perform a task. They
collaborate, synergistically leveraging the strengths of the robot (accuracy, repeatability, speed,
lifting capability, and tirelessness) with the strengths of the human worker (intelligence,
adaptability, and problem solving ability).
Greater safety
Using robots for repetitive tasks means fewer risks of injury for workers, especially when
manufacturing has to take place under hostile conditions. In addition, supervisors can oversee
the process online or from a remote location.
Prestige
You set yourself at the cutting edge of your industry and wow your customers when they come
to see you. As a marketing tool robots are fantastic, boost your brand image, and have often
been used simply for the PR even if they don’t offer many benefits over a bespoke non-robotic
system.
Types of joints
• Linear joint (type L joint). The relative movement between the input link and the
output link is a translational telescoping motion, with the axes of the two links being
parallel.
• Orthogonal joint (type O joint). This is also a translational sliding motion, but the
input and output links are perpendicular to each other.
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• Rotational joint (type R joint). This type provides rotational relative motion, with the
axis of rotation perpendicular to the axes of the input and output links.
• Twisting joint (type T joint). This joint also involves rotary motion, but the axis of
rotation is parallel to the axes of the two links.
• Revolving joint (type V joint, V from the “v” in revolving). In this joint type, the axis
of the input link is parallel to the axis of rotation of the joint, and the axis of the output
link is perpendicular to the axis of rotation.
BODY-AND-ARM CONFIGURATIONS
Given the five types of joints defined earlier, there are 5 x 5 x 5 = 125 possible combinations
of joints that could be used to design the body-and-arm assembly for a three-axis manipulator.
In addition, there are design variations within the individual joint types (e.g., physical size of
the joint and range of motion).
Configurations are given below.
Articulated robot
Also known as a jointed-arm robot (see figure), it has the general configuration of a human
shoulder and arm.
It consists of an upright body that swivels about the base using a T joint. At the top of the body
is a shoulder joint (shown as an R joint in the figure), whose output link connects to an elbow
joint (another R joint).
Polar configuration
This configuration consists of a sliding arm (L joint) actuated relative to the body, which can
rotate about both a vertical axis (T joint) and a horizontal axis (R joint).
SCARA
SCARA is an acronym for Selectively Compliant Arm for Robotic Assembly. This
configuration is similar to the jointed-arm robot except that the shoulder and elbow rotational
axes are vertical, which means that the arm is very rigid in the vertical direction but compliant
in the horizontal direction. This permits the robot to perform insertion tasks (for assembly) in
a vertical direction, where some side-to-side alignment may be needed to mate the two parts
properly.
the SCARA configuration typically does not have a separate wrist assembly. As indicated in
the description, it is used for insertion-type assembly operations in which the insertion is made
from above. Accordingly, orientation requirements are minimal, and the wrist is not needed
The usual Cartesian coordinate robot is suspended from a gantry structure. The first and second
axes permit x–y movement over a rectangular area above the floor. The third axis permits
movement in the z direction to reach downward. Depending on the application requirements, a
wrist assembly can be attached to the end of the arm.
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Delta robot
This unusual design, depicted in following figure, consists of three arms attached to an
overhead base. Each arm is articulated and consists of two rotational joints (type R), the first
of which is powered and the second is unpowered. All three arms are connected to a small
platform below, to which the end effector is attached. The platform and end effector can be
manipulated in three dimensions. The delta robot is used for high-speed movement of small
objects, as in product packaging.
The delta robot is also suspended from an overhead base rather than floor mounted. Its most
unique feature is its three articulated arms that are all connected to the platform below. Each
arm has one powered joint and one follower joint.
WRIST CONFIGURATIONS
• The robot’s wrist is used to establish the orientation of the end effector.
• Robot wrists usually consist of two or three joints that almost always consist of R and
T type rotary joints.
• Following figure illustrates one possible configuration for a three-axis wrist assembly.
SENSORS IN ROBOTICS
A wide variety of sensors is available for collecting data from the manufacturing process for
use in feedback control. A sensor is a transducer, which is a device that converts a physical
variable of one form into another form that is more useful for the given application. In
particular, a sensor is a device that converts a physical stimulus or variable of interest (such as
temperature, force, pressure, or displacement) into a more convenient form (usually an
electrical quantity such as voltage) for the purpose of measuring the stimulus.
Sensors used in industrial robotics can be classified into two categories:
• internal and
• external.
Internal sensors
Internal sensors are components of the robot and are used to control the positions and velocities
of the robot joints. These sensors form a feedback control loop with the robot controller.
Typical sensors used to control the position of the robot arm include potentiometers and optical
encoders. Tachometers of various types are used to control the speed of the robot arm.
External sensors
External sensors are external to the robot and are used to coordinate the operation of the robot
with other equipment in the cell. They act as interlocks. In many cases, these external sensors
are relatively simple devices, such as limit switches that determine whether a part has been
positioned properly in a fixture or that a part is ready to be picked up at a conveyor.
Proximity sensors
These indicate when an object is close to the sensor. When this type of sensor is used to indicate
the actual distance of the object, it is called a range sensor.
Machine vision
Machine vision is used in robotics for inspection, parts identification. guidance, and other uses.
Improvements in programming of vision-guided robot (VGR) systems have made
implementations of this technology easier and faster, and machine vision is being implemented
as an integral feature in more and more robot installations, especially in the automotive
industry.
GRIPPERS
Grippers are end effectors (An end effector is usually attached to the robot’s wrist) used to
grasp and manipulate objects during the work cycle. The objects are usually work parts that are
moved from one location to another in the cell. Machine loading and unloading applications
fall into this category.
Types of grippers
• Mechanical grippers, consisting of two or more fingers that can be actuated by the
robot controller to open and close on the work part (Figure 8.10 shows a two-finger
gripper)
• Vacuum grippers, in which suction cups are used to hold flat objects
• Magnetized devices, for holding ferrous parts
• Adhesive devices, which use an adhesive substance to hold a flexible material such as
a fabric
• Simple mechanical devices, such as hooks and scoops.
Mechanical grippers
Mechanical grippers are the most common gripper type.
Some of the innovations and advances in mechanical gripper technology include:
• Dual grippers, consisting of two gripper devices in one end effector for machine
loading and unloading. With a single gripper, the robot must reach into the production
machine twice, once to unload the finished part and position it in a location external to
the machine and the second time to pick up the next part and load it into the machine.
With a dual gripper, the robot picks up the next work part while the machine is still
processing the previous part. When the machine cycle is finished, the robot reaches into
the machine only once: to remove the finished part and load the next part. This reduces
the cycle time per part.
Repeatability
Repeatability is a measure of the robot’s ability to position its end-of-wrist at a previously
taught point in the work volume. Each time the robot attempts to return to the programmed
point it will return to a slightly different position. Repeatability variations have as their
principal source the mechanical errors previously mentioned. Therefore, as in NC, for a single
joint-link mechanism,
Re = ±3σ
where σ = standard deviation of the error distribution.
One of the joints of an industrial robot has a type R joint with a range of 90°. The bit storage
capacity of the robot controller is 10 bits for this joint. The mechanical errors form a normally
distributed random variable about a given taught point. The mean of the distribution is zero
and the standard deviation is 0.05°. (a) Determine the control resolution CR2, accuracy, and
repeatability for this robot joint. (b) Also, if the output link has a length of 0.75 m, determine
the linear distance corresponding to CR2, accuracy, and repeatability at the end of the link.
Solution
R 90
=
CR2 = = 0.0880
2 − 1 1024 − 1
B
0.088
Ac = + 3(0.05) =0.1940
2
=
Re 3=
x0.05 0.150
Image transformation
• Image transformation is the process of electronically digitizing light images using
image devices.
• An image device is the front end of a vision system, which acts as an image transducer
to convert light energy to electrical energy.
• Compare this with humans, where the image device is the eye.
• In a vision system, the image device is a camera, photodiode array, Charge-Coupled
Device (CCD) array or Charge-Injection Device (CID) array.
• The output of an image device is a continuous analog signal that is proportional to the
amount of light reflected from an image.
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• In order to analyse the image with a computer, the analog signals must be converted
and stored in digital form.
• To this end, a rectangular image array is divided into small regions called picture
elements or pixels.
• With photodiodes or CCD arrays, the number of pixels equals the number of
photodiodes or CCD devices.
• The pixel arrangement provides a sampling grid for an analog-to-digital (A/D)
converter.
• At each pixel, the analog signal is sampled and converted to a botic digital value.
• With an 8-bit A/D converter, the converted pixel value will range from 0 for white to
255 for black.
• Different shades of grey are represented by values between these two extremes.
• This is the reason why the term grey level is often used in conjunction with the
converted values.
• As the pixels are converted, the respective grey-level values are stored in a memory
matrix, which is called a picture matrix.
Image analysis
• A computer needs to locate the edges of an object in order to construct drawings of the
object within a scene.
• The line drawings provide a basis for image understanding, as they define the shapes
of objects that make up a scene.
• Thus, the basic reason for edge detection is that edges lead to line drawings, which lead
to shapes, which lead to image understanding.
• Edge detection
• The edges are usually represented by the points that exhibit the greatest difference in
grey-level values within a smoothed picture matrix.
• From calculus, it should be known that the slope of a step edge approaches infinity.
• Using this idea, all we have to do is to calculate the first derivative between adjacent
grey-scale values, which is usually called the gradient.
• The technique is called pixel differentiation.
Thresholding
• Lines might then be identified from the binary matrix that is thresholded.
• Some popular techniques for finding lines from an edge-point matrix are model
matching, tracking and template matching.
• Thresholding
• Lines might then be identified from the binary matrix that is thresholded.
• Some popular techniques for finding lines from an edge-point matrix are model
matching, tracking and template matching.
Identification
• Identification is concerned with applications in which the purpose is to recognize and
classify an object rather than to inspect it.
• Inspection implies that the part must be either accepted or rejected.
Navigation
• In navigation control, the purpose is to direct the actions of the robot and other devices
in the robot cell based on visual input.
• An example is to control the trajectory of the robots end effector. towards an object in
the workspace.
ROBOT PROGRAMMING
To accomplish useful work, a robot must be programmed to perform a motion cycle. A robot
program can be defined as a path in space to be followed by the manipulator, combined with
peripheral actions that support the work cycle. Examples of peripheral actions include opening
and closing a gripper, performing logical decision making, and communicating with other
pieces of equipment in the cell. A robot is programmed by entering the programming
commands into its controller memory. Different robots use different methods of entering the
commands.
Motion Programming
Motion programming with robot languages usually requires a combination of textual
statements and lead through techniques. Accordingly, this method of programming is
sometimes referred to as on-line/off-line programming. The textual statements are used to
describe the motion, and the leadthrough methods are used to define the position and
orientation of the robot during and/or at the end of the motion. To illustrate, the basic motion
statement is
MOVE Pl
which commands the robot to move from its current position to a position and orientation
defined by the variable name Pl.
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