Research and development of an intelligent AGV-based material handling system for industrial applications

The use of autonomous robots in industrial applications is growing in popularity and possesses the following advantages: cost effectiveness, job efficiency and safety aspects. Despite the advantages, the major drawback to using autonomous robots is the cost involved to acquire such robots. It is the aim of GMSA to develop a low cost AGV capable of performing material handling in an industrial environment. Collective autonomous robots are often used to perform tasks, that is, more than one working together to achieve a common goal. The intelligent controller, responsible for establishing coordination between the individual robots, plays a key role in managing the tasks of each robot to achieve the common goal. This dissertation addresses the development of an AGV capable of such functionality. Key research areas include: the development of an autonomous coupling system, integration of key safety devices and the development of an intelligent control strategy that can be used to govern the operation of multiple AGVs in an area

Tecnologías automatizadas implementadas en la FMS HAS200

This paper presents the automation implemented through a series of projects oriented towards the continuous improvement and development of the didactic systems present in HAS200 flexible manufacturing cells of the Facultad Tecnológica of the Universidad Distrital Francisco José de Caldas. Through these projects, it has been possible to implement a series of automated improvements such as (i) a virtual environment of the flexible manufacturing cell, geometrically modeled for remote simulation of the didactic processes; (ii) a new automated station for recycling pellets that is integrated with the other stations to classify the raw material in three separate colors; (iii) a new user-machine interface for a Melfa Mitsubishi RV-M1 manipulator arm, which allows the recycling station to be integrated with the rest of the flexible manufacturing cell; iv) an automated gripper design for handling and subsequent opening of containers within the cell; v) an artificial vision system implemented to alternate autonomous transport of product between stations using unmanned ground vehicles; vi) a virtual course for the management and operation of the flexible manufacturing cell. The automation strategies proposed in the HAS200 can be extrapolated to real production environments under the same automation concepts, which makes each result obtained doubly beneficial.En este artículo se presenta la automatización implementada a través de una serie de proyectos orientados hacia el continuo mejoramiento y desarrollo de los sistemas didácticos presentes en celdas de manufactura flexibles HAS200 de la Facultad Tecnológica de la Universidad Distrital Francisco José de Caldas. Por medio de dichos proyectos se ha logrado implementar una serie de mejoras automatizadas como por ejemplo: i) un entorno virtual de la celda de manufactura flexible, modelado geométricamente para la simulación remota de los procesos didácticos; ii) una novedosa estación automatizada para el reciclaje de pellets que se integra con las demás estaciones para clasificar la materia prima en tres colores separados; iii) una nueva interfaz de usuario-máquina para un brazo manipulador Melfa Mitsubishi RV-M1, que permite integrar la estación de reciclaje con el resto de la celda de manufactura flexible; iv) un diseño de gripper automatizado, para la manipulación y posterior apertura de recipientes dentro de la celda; v) un sistema de visión artificial implementado al transporte autónomo alterno de producto entre estaciones mediante vehículos terrestres no tripulados; vi) un curso virtual para el manejo y operación de la celda de manufactura flexible. La automatización propuesta en la HAS200 puede ser extrapolable hacia entornos productivos reales bajo los mismos conceptos de automatización, lo cual hace que cada resultado obtenido sea doblemente beneficioso

Improving just-in-time delivery performance of IoT-enabled flexible manufacturing systems with AGV based material transportation

Autonomous guided vehicles (AGVs) are driverless material handling systems used for transportation of pallets and line side supply of materials to provide flexibility and agility in shop-floor logistics. Scheduling of shop-floor logistics in such systems is a challenging task due to their complex nature associated with the multiple part types and alternate material transfer routings. This paper presents a decision support system capable of supporting shop-floor decision-making activities during the event of manufacturing disruptions by automatically adjusting both AGV and machine schedules in Flexible Manufacturing Systems (FMSs). The proposed system uses discrete event simulation (DES) models enhanced by the Internet-of-Things (IoT) enabled digital integration and employs a nonlinear mixed integer programming Genetic Algorithm (GA) to find near-optimal production schedules prioritising the just-in-time (JIT) material delivery performance and energy efficiency of the material transportation. The performance of the proposed system is tested on the Integrated Manufacturing and Logistics (IML) demonstrator at WMG, University of Warwick. The results showed that the developed system can find the near-optimal solutions for production schedules subjected to production anomalies in a negligible time, thereby supporting shop-floor decision-making activities effectively and rapidly

Improving just-in-time delivery performance of IoT-enabled flexible manufacturing systems with AGV based material transportation

© 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. Autonomous guided vehicles (AGVs) are driverless material handling systems used for transportation of pallets and line side supply of materials to provide flexibility and agility in shop-floor logistics. Scheduling of shop-floor logistics in such systems is a challenging task due to their complex nature associated with the multiple part types and alternate material transfer routings. This paper presents a decision support system capable of supporting shop-floor decision-making activities during the event of manufacturing disruptions by automatically adjusting both AGV and machine schedules in Flexible Manufacturing Systems (FMSs). The proposed system uses discrete event simulation (DES) models enhanced by the Internet-of-Things (IoT) enabled digital integration and employs a nonlinear mixed integer programming Genetic Algorithm (GA) to find near-optimal production schedules prioritising the just-in-time (JIT) material delivery performance and energy efficiency of the material transportation. The performance of the proposed system is tested on the Integrated Manufacturing and Logistics (IML) demonstrator at WMG, University of Warwick. The results showed that the developed system can find the near-optimal solutions for production schedules subjected to production anomalies in a negligible time, thereby supporting shop-floor decision-making activities effectively and rapidly

Implementation of automated assembly

Research has shown that about 60 - 80% wealth producing activities is related to manufacturing in major industrial countries. Increased competition in industry has resulted in a greater emphasis on using automation to improve productivity and quality and also to reduce cost. Most of the manufacturing works such as machining, painting, storage, retrieval, inspection and transportation have changed to automation successfully, except assembly. Manual assembly is predominant over automatic assembly techniques due to inherent assembly problem and the fact that the assembly machines lack the innate intelligence of human operator and lack sufficient flexibility to changeover when product designs and market demands change. With the advent of flexible manufacturing systems, which involve very large capital costs and complex interactions. For the reduction the risk of the investment and analyze the system, simulation is a valuable tool in planning the systems and in analyzing their behavior, and get the best use of them. This thesis applies animation techniques to simulate an automatic assembly system. In chapter 1 to 9, we cover some of the fundamental concepts and principles of automatic assembly and simulation. Some manufacturers put the subject of part orientation first on their list of priorities; but design for assembly (DFA) techniques have proven extremely valuable in developing better assembly techniques and ultimately, better products. We discuss DFA in chapter 1, part feeding and orientation in chapter 2. Chapter 3, 4 and 5 are concerned with assembly process, machines and control system, respectively. Annual sales for industrial robots have been growing at the rate of about 25 percent per year in major industrial countries, we review the robot application in chapter 6. The cost of material handling is a significant portion of the total cost of production, material storage uses valuable space and consumes investment, we cover these two topics in chapter 7 and 8. Chapter 9 is concerned with simulation. In chapter 10, 11,12 and 13, we implement a software package IGRIP to build a model of an automatic assembly system and analyze the result

A framework for flexible and reconfigurable vision inspection systems

Reconfiguration activities remain a significant challenge for automated Vision Inspection Systems (VIS), which are characterized by hardware rigidity and time-consuming software programming tasks. This work contributes to overcoming the current gap in VIS reconfigurability by proposing a novel framework based on the design of Flexible Vision Inspection Systems (FVIS), enabling a Reconfiguration Support System (RSS). FVIS is achieved using reprogrammable hardware components that allow for easy setup based on software commands. The RSS facilitates offline software programming by extracting parameters from real images, Computer-Aided Design (CAD) data, and rendered images using Automatic Feature Recognition (AFR). The RSS offers a user-friendly interface that guides non-expert users through the reconfiguration process for new part types, eliminating the need for low-level coding. The proposed framework has been practically validated during a 4-year collaboration with a global leading automotive half shaft manufacturer. A fully automated FVIS and the related RSS have been designed following the proposed framework and are currently implemented in 7 plants of GKN global automotive supplier, checking 60 defect types on thousands of parts per day, covering more than 200 individual part types and 12 part families

Development of insect production automation: Automated processes for the production of Black Soldier Fly (Hermetia illucens)

In recent years, Black Soldier Fly (Hermetia illucens) has received attention as an attractive approach for recycling biowaste into value products. The production of Black Soldier Fly (BSF) uses biowaste as the input feedstock for the growing of BSF larvae in order to produce nutrient-rich larvae feedstock products and organic fertilizers. However, most of the operations in BSF production are still carried out manually, which limits production volume. This makes BSF products less competitive than other traditional feedstock products. Thus, this thesis aims to develop automated processes for the mass production of BSF larvae. In order to eliminate the dependence on manual work and to make feasible the industrialization of production, a six-step strategy was implemented. The sequence of steps was as follows: determining the requirements and specifications of the BSF production; calculating the desired capacity of processes; selecting machinery; designing automated processes; proposing a method of machinery integration; and designing state machines for automation software programming. The solution developed here consists of four components: a list of machinery with capacity analysis; a designed floor layout and 3D visualization of all production processes; a proposed automation control system for the integration of machinery; and composite function blocks of IEC 61499 standard for automation software programming. This thesis shows that the availability of current technologies makes feasible the automation of the BSF production process. In terms of further work, the selection of processing machines should be verified; and both the programming of automation software and the use of simulation could improve the design of the production automation

Design of a web-based integrated material handling system for manufacturing applications

In this research, a Web-based system called DESIGNER for the design of integrated material handling systems is developed. DESIGNER models the material handling system design processes including the material handling equipment (MHE) selection and employs information on the most common MHE types used in material movement, storage, and positioning.;The system designs the material handling system for an application through three phases. In Phase I, the procedure identifies the most appropriate MHE type among the alternatives that are suitable for the application. Knowledge-based rules are employed to identify alternative handling equipment for each material flow link. To select the final suitable MHE type for each material flow link, not only does the system consider the economic aspect of the equipment but also their applicability, adaptability and integratability, maintenance and safety, and other factors that a user may deem worthy of consideration. To compare the aggregate effect of the multiple design attributes considered for the alternatives, fuzzy evaluation matrices and normalized evaluation values are employed. To reduce the overall system cost, in Phase II, the system checks for excess capacity for each type of equipment recommended. It also checks if operating systems for automatic equipment suggested can be combined to reduce the total number of the operating systems. Any excess capacity identified is eliminated whenever it is considered possible without introducing design infeasibility. Excess capacity is eliminated by assigning a unit of each equipment to multiple flow links and thereby reducing the total number of units of the equipment that is recommended. This reduction in equipment capacity does not apply to conveyors and storage devices because of their immobile feature. The reduction process is applicable to mobile equipment that enjoy flexible routing. In Phase III, the set of material handling equipment selected is adjusted to satisfy budget constraints if the total cost of the initial set of the selected equipment exceeds the budget.;After identifying the most appropriate MHE, the modules for economic analysis, performance measure analysis, AS/RS design analysis, and system integration analysis for automatic MHE are invoked. The results of the analyses provide system users with useful data for the material handling system design and decision on investment in MHE. An example application is given to demonstrate the use of DESIGNER

A STUDY OF MACHINE VISION IN THE AUTOMOTIVE INDUSTRY

With the growth of industrial automation, it has become increasingly important to validate the quality of every manufactured part during production. Until now, human visual inspection aided with hard tooling or machines have been the primary means to this end, but the speed of today's production lines, the complexity of production equipment and the highest standards of quality to which parts must adhere frequently, make the traditional methods of industrial inspection and control impractical, if not impossible. Subsequently, new solutions have been developed for the monitoring and control of industrial processes, in real­time. One such technology is the area of machine vision. After many years of research and development, computerised vision systems are now leaving the laboratory and are being used successfully in the factory environment. They are both robust and competitively priced as a sensing technique which has now opened up a whole new sector for automation. Machine vision systems are becoming an important integral part of the automotive manufacturing process, with applications ranging from inspection, classification, robot guidance, assembly verification through to process monitoring and control. Although the number of systems in current use is still relatively small, there can be no doubt, given the issues at stake, that the automotive industry will once again lead the way with the implementation of machine vision just as it has done robotic technology. The thesis considered the issue of machine vision and in particular, its deployment within the automotive industry. The thesis has presented work on machine vision for the prospective end-user and not the designer of such systems. It will provide sufficient background about the subject, to separate machine vision promises from reality and permit intelligent decisions regarding machine vision applications to be made. The initial part of the dissertation focussed on the strategic issues affecting the selection of machine vision at the planning stage, such as a listing of the factors to justify investment, the capability of the technology and type of problems that are associated with this relatively new but complex science. Though it is widely accepted that no two industrial machine vision systems are identical, knowledge of the basic fundamentals which underpin the structure of the technology in its application is presented. This work covered a structured description detailing typical hardware components such as camera technology, lighting systems, etc... which form an integral part of an industrial system and discussions regarding the criteria for selection are presented. To complement this work, a further section is specifically devoted to the bewildering array of vision software analysis techniques which are currently available today. A detailed description of the various techniques that are applied to images in order to make use of and understand the data contained within them are discussed and explored. Applications for machine vision fall into two main categories namely robotic guidance and inspection. Obviously within each category there are many further sub­groups. Within this context the latter part of the thesis reviews with a well structured description of several industrial case studies derived from the automotive industry, which illustrate that machine vision is capable of providing real time solutions to manufacturing based problems. In conclusion, despite the limited availability of industrially based machine vision systems, the success of implementation is not always guaranteed, as the technology imposes both technical limitations and introduce new human engineering considerations. By understanding the application and the implications of the technical requirements on both the "staging" and the "image-processing" power required of the machine vision system. The thesis has shown that the most significant elements of a successful application are indeed the lighting, optics, component design, etc... - the "Staging". From the case studies investigated, optimised "staging" has resulted in the need for less computing power in the machine vision system. Inevitably, greater computing power not only requires more time but is generally more expensive. The experience gained from the this project, has demonstrated that machine vision technology is a realistic alternative means of capturing data in real-time. Since the current limitations of the technology are well suited to the delivery process of the quality function within the manufacturing process