An application of physical flexibility and software reconfigurability for the automation of battery module assembly

Batteries are a strategic technology to decarbonize conventional automotive powertrains and enable energy policy turnaround from fossil fuels to renewable energy. The demand for battery packs is rising, but they remain unable to compete with conventional technologies, primarily due to higher costs. Major sources of cost remain in manufacturing and assembly. These costs can be attributed to a need for high product quality, material handling complexity, uncertain and fluctuating production volumes, and an unpredictable breadth of product variants. This research paper applies the paradigms of flexibility from a mechanical engineering perspective, and reconfigurability from a software perspective to form a holistic, integrated manufacturing solution to better realize product variants. This allows manufacturers to de-risk investment as there is increased confidence that a facility can meet new requirements with reduced effort, and also shows how part of the vision of Industry 4.0 associated with the integration and exploitation of data can be fulfilled. A functional decomposition of battery packs is used to develop a foundational understanding of how changes in customer requirements can result in physical product changes. A Product, Process, and Resource (PPR) methodology is employed to link physical product characteristics to physical and logical characteristics of resources. This mapping is leveraged to enable the design of a gripper with focused flexibility by the Institute for Machine Tools and Industrial Management (iwb) at the Technical University of Munich, as it is acknowledged that mechanical changes are challenging to realize within industrial manufacturing facilities. Reconfigurability is realised through exploitation of data integration across the PPR domains, through the extension of the capabilities of a non-commercial virtual engineering toolset developed by the Automation Systems Group at the University of Warwick. The work shows an “end-to-end” approach that practically demonstrates the application of the flexibility and reconfigurability paradigms within an industrial engineering context

An Application of Physical Flexibility and Software Reconfigurability for the Automation of Battery Module Assembly

Batteries are a strategic technology to decarbonize conventional automotive powertrains and enable energy policy turnaround from fossil fuels to renewable energy. The demand for battery packs is rising, but they remain unable to compete with conventional technologies, primarily due to higher costs. Major sources of cost remain in manufacturing and assembly. These costs can be attributed to a need for high product quality, material handling complexity, uncertain and fluctuating production volumes, and an unpredictable breadth of product variants. This research paper applies the paradigms of flexibility from a mechanical engineering perspective, and reconfigurability from a software perspective to form a holistic, integrated manufacturing solution to better realize product variants. This allows manufacturers to de-risk investment as there is increased confidence that a facility can meet new requirements with reduced effort, and also shows how part of the vision of Industry 4.0 associated with the integration and exploitation of data can be fulfilled. A functional decomposition of battery packs is used to develop a foundational understanding of how changes in customer requirements can result in physical product changes. A Product, Process, and Resource (PPR) methodology is employed to link physical product characteristics to physical and logical characteristics of resources. This mapping is leveraged to enable the design of a gripper with focused flexibility by the Institute for Machine Tools and Industrial Management (iwb) at the Technical University of Munich, as it is acknowledged that mechanical changes are challenging to realize within industrial manufacturing facilities. Reconfigurability is realised through exploitation of data integration across the PPR domains, through the extension of the capabilities of a non-commercial virtual engineering toolset developed by the Automation Systems Group at the University of Warwick. The work shows an “end-to-end” approach that practically demonstrates the application of the flexibility and reconfigurability paradigms within an industrial engineering context

Handling of Frequent Design Changes in an Automated Assembly Cell for Electronic Products

AbstractThis paper presents a prototype flexible assembly cell used for the assembly of electronic products. The cell is the first prototype version of the coming assembly system for fire sensors at Autronica. It is developed specifically for testing different concepts to reduce development time for design changes and introduction of new variants. The cell consists of a robot, grippers, sensors, vision systems and fixturing systems which have been selected for in-line adaptivity and reconfiguration. The topics of developing generic vision programs and reducing programming time for vision and robot have been central. The aspects needed to be addressed during development are presented together with considered and chosen solutions. These solutions are also discussed and compared to other systems presented in recent publications on flexible assembly

Annals of Scientific Society for Assembly, Handling and Industrial Robotics

This Open Access proceedings present a good overview of the current research landscape of industrial robots. The objective of MHI Colloquium is a successful networking at academic and management level. Thereby the colloquium is focussing on a high level academic exchange to distribute the obtained research results, determine synergetic effects and trends, connect the actors personally and in conclusion strengthen the research field as well as the MHI community. Additionally there is the possibility to become acquainted with the organizing institute. Primary audience are members of the scientific association for assembly, handling and industrial robots (WG MHI)

A Reconfigurable Gripper for Robotic Autonomous Depalletizing in Supermarket Logistics

Automatic depalletizing is becoming a practice widely applied in warehouses to automatize and speed-up logistics. On the other hand, the necessity to adapt the preexisting logistic lines to a custom automatic system can be a limit for the application of robotic solutions into smaller facilities like supermarkets. In this work, we tackle this issue by proposing a flexible and adaptive gripper for robotic depalletizing. The gripper is designed to be assembled on the end-tip of an industrial robotic arm. A novel patent-pending mechanism allows grasping boxes and products from both the upper and the lateral side enabling the depalletizing of boxes with complex shape. Moreover, the gripper is reconfigurable with five actuated degrees of freedom, that are automatically controlled using the embedded sensors to adapt grasping to different shapes and weights

Force Controlled Knife-Grinding with Industrial Robot

This paper investigates the application of sharpening knives using a force controlled industrial robot, for an arbitrary knife shape and orientation. The problem is divided into different parts: calibration of the knife by identifying its unknown orientation, identification of the knife blade contour and estimation of its position in the robot frame through force control, and grinding of the knife, following the path defined by the earlier identified shape, while applying the desired contact force to the revolving grinding wheels. The experimental results show that the knives can be sharpened satisfactorily. An industrial application has also been developed and tested, and it has produced a sharpening quality equal or greater to that achieved manually

Recent research on flexible fixtures for manufacturing processes

Fixtures, are used to fixate, position and support workpieces, and form a crucial tool in manufacturing. Their performance influences the manufacturing (and assembly) process of a product. Furthermore, fixturing can form a significant portion of the needed investment and total process planning time for the manufacturing system. Many fixturing concepts, as contribution to increase the flexibility of the manufacturing system, are reported in the literature. The flexible fixturing designs can be classified into the following seven categories: modular fixtures, flexible pallet systems, sensor-based fixture design, phase-change based concepts, chuck-based concepts, pin-type array fixtures and automatically reconfigurable fixtures. It is observed that the more intelligent and automated fixturing systems are designed with the demands for automation in certain industries in mind. Furthermore, different fixturing solutions suit the engineering demands for different manufacturing areas, this means that for the foreseeable future all technologies will remain current. From the self-reconfigurable fixturing techniques a new fixturing capability is emerging: in process reconfigurability for the optimal placement of clamps and supports during the whole process time. These several concepts together with some recent patents are studied here. The paper concludes with some prospective research directions in the field of flexible fixturing

Self-engineering – Technological Challenges

Engineered products are becoming more complex and need longer lifetime availability; there is a need for new approaches in maintaining, repairing and overhaul (MRO). This paper presents the concept of self-engineering; the aim is to preserve the functions of a product or system and extend its lifetime and automate MRO processes. New developments in self-healing materials, self-reconfiguring electronics and robotics, which are already or could be self-engineering systems, are reviewed. Biological healing and repair mechanisms are discussed as a potential source of inspiration for new self-engineering systems. Examples of biological self-engineering are presented. Key technological challenges and research questions which need to be addressed in future self-engineering research are discussed throughout

Research and development of a reconfigurable robotic end-effector for machining and part handling.

Masters Degree. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban.Abstract available in PDF