MSE12: The loading and uploading robots in car wheel industry

Robots are increasingly used by the industries especially, in the loading and unloading operations.This research concentrates on the loading and unloading operations of car wheels using an industrial robot arm.The concept operation of the industrial robot arm is discussed thoroughly.This research showed the advantages and disadvantages of using robot arm to handle loading and unloading operation for car wheels.In manufacturing operations, the geometry and the weight of a car wheels makes it difficult to be handle using manual labor.This research uplifts the potential advantages of using robot arm in dealing with these problems.This in-turn can increase the productivity of the car wheels manufacturing industries

Toward Effective Physical Human-Robot Interaction

With the fast advancement of technology, in recent years, robotics technology has significantly matured and produced robots that are able to operate in unstructured environments such as domestic environments, offices, hospitals and other human-inhabited locations. In this context, the interaction and cooperation between humans and robots has become an important and challenging aspect of robot development. Among the various kinds of possible interactions, in this Ph.D. thesis I am particularly interested in physical human-robot interaction (pHRI). In order to study how a robot can successfully engage in physical interaction with people and which factors are crucial during this kind of interaction, I investigated how humans and robots can hand over objects to each other. To study this specific interactive task I developed two robotic prototypes and conducted human-robot user studies. Although various aspects of human-robot handovers have been deeply investigated in the state of the art, during my studies I focused on three issues that have been rarely investigated so far: Human presence and motion analysis during the interaction in order to infer non-verbal communication cues and to synchronize the robot actions with the human motion; Development and evaluation of human-aware pro-active robot behaviors that enable robots to behave actively in the proximity of the human body in order to negotiate the handover location and to perform the transfer of the object; Consideration of objects grasp affordances during the handover in order to make the interaction more comfortable for the human

\u3cem\u3eGRASP News\u3c/em\u3e, Volume 8, Number 1

A report of the General Robotics and Active Sensory Perception (GRASP) Laboratory. Edited by Thomas Lindsay

A communication module for capturing events in order to monitor a service-based automated production line

The efficiency, reliability and on time maintenance of a manufacturing process largely relies on a highly efficient and rapidly responsive monitoring system. The increasing demand of uninterrupted continuation of a production process emphasizes the need of anefficient real time monitoring mechanism of the process. The rapid advancements of modern technology especially in the communication field have largely affected every field of daily life as well as the industrial sector. The rise of wireless communication technology has made it possible to develop wireless sensors for industrial monitoring applications and revolutionize the monitoring techniques to a greater extent. The work researches a web based monitoring approach for real time monitoring of service-oriented production assembly with 3D visualization. The implementation deals with the design and implementation of a communication framework for receiving, processing and publishing events information of a service oriented assembly line. The processed information is then linked and simulated with a 3D replica of the actual process over the web in real time. The work demonstrates the usefulness of versatile features of 3D visualization in industrial monitoring applications. The online accessibility of the monitoring application enables all concerned individuals to access and monitor the manufacturing process in real time from any remote location. The developed web application can also be simulated for a given set of historical data. Currently, the research work focuses on capturing and simulating only two types of shop floor messages (Pallet activity notification message and Robot activity equipment change state message), but can be enhanced to include more features of the robotic assembly line in future

A 3d Real-Time Monitoring System for a Production Line

It is hypothesized than a transparent view of the factory floor, in real time, will provide grounds for achieving a better control over the factory assets, including maintenance activities and scheduling optimization. The main goal of this research is to provide a Real-Time 3D Monitoring of manufacturing systems by capitalizing the early 3D model created for simulation proposes and the eventualized information offered by the Factory Information Systems in the shape of web services via DPWS. In addition the monitoring application should be accessible via a web-based application allowing multi-viewers on multi-platform, including mobile ones. The thesis discusses the background of Factory Monitoring and Visualization Systems, including 3D Modeling and Animation, and Web-based Applications. Then a robotized assembly line located at FAST-Lab. is presented for been used as the test bed of the implementation by the designed System. CATIA and DELMIA Software model the 3D view of the line assets. A method for importing to Unity3d Software is also developed and documented. The Unity Game engine produces the animation of the 3D models. Then, the Application is published as a web-based application running under Unity browser plugin. Lastly, an interface for the communication of the 3D virtual world and the line Sensors and Data Acquisition application is presented in order to achieve the Real-Time triggering of the events driven the 3D virtual representation of the assembly line

Control visual de un robot móvil mediante una cámara cenital

This research project addresses the problem of controlling the motion of a small mobile robot by means of visual feedback provided by an overhead camera. This visual servoing problem has been previously addressed by many researchers due to its multiple applications to real world problems. In this document, we propose a software platform that rely on low cost hardware components to solve it. Based on the imagery supplied by the overhead camera, the proposed system is capable of precisely locating and tracking the robot within a planar ground workspace, using the CAMShift algorithm, as well as finding out its orientation at every moment. Then, an error measurement is defined between current and desired positions of the robot in the Cartesian plane (Position-Based Visual Servoing). In order to generate the suitable motion commands that lead the robot towards its destination, we make use of mathematical equations that model the control of the robot. The platform has been especially designed regarding its application to real time problems. One of the central goals of this work is analyzing the viability of the proposed system and the level of accuracy that it is capable of achieving taking into account the low cost components on which it is based. The validation of the system has come as a result of the real time experiments that have been conducted. Firstly, an exhaustive battery testing that comprehends 1400 experiments has been conducted in order to find a suitable set of parameter values that polished the control equations. Secondly, we have implemented three different applications to test these new control values: tracing a trajectory defined by a fixed set of points, pursuing a mobile target and integrating our system with a blockprogramming platform from which it receives a set of destination points to be followed. Having successfully completed all these tasks, we conclude that the proposed robotic system has well proven its feasibility and effectiveness facing the addressed visual servoing problem.Este proyecto de investigación aborda el problema de controlar el movimiento de un pequeño robot móvil por medio del feedback visual proporcionado por una cámara cenital. Este problema de control visual de servos ya ha sido abordado previamente por multitud de investigadores debido a sus múltiples aplicaciones a problemas del mundo real. En este documento, se propone una plataforma software que depende de componentes hardware de bajo coste para resolverlo. Basado en imágenes suministradas por la cámara cenital, el sistema propuesto es capaz de localizar y seguir de forma precisa al robot dentro de un entorno de trabajo en el plano del suelo, usando para ello el algoritmo de tracking CAMShift, así como averiguar su orientación en cada momento. Después, una medida de error se define entre la posición actual del robot y la deseada en el plano Cartesiano (control visual de servos basado en posición (PBVS)). Para generar los comandos de movimiento aporpiados que lleven al robot a su destino, hacemos uso de ecuaciones matemáticas que modelizan el control del robot. La plataforma ha sido especialmente diseñada teniendo en cuenta su aplicación a problemas en tiempo real. Uno de los objetivos centrales de este trabajo es analizar la viabilidad del sistema propuesto y el nivel de precisión que es capaz de obtener teniendo en cuenta los componentes de bajo coste en los que se basa. La validación del sistema viene dada como resultado de los experimentos en tiempo real que se han llevado a cabo. Primeramente, una exhaustiva batería de pruebas que comprende 1400 experimentos ha sido ejecutada con el fin de obtener un set de valores para los parámetros que puliesen las ecuaciones de control. A continuación, hemos implementado tres aplicaciones diferentes para probar estos nuevos valores de control: trazar una trayectoria definida por un conjunto de puntos fijos, perseguir un objetivo móvil e integrar nuestro sistema con la plataforma de programación por bloques desde la que recibe el conjunto de puntos a seguir. Habiendo completado todas estas tareas satisfactoriamente, concluimos que el sistema robótico propuesto ha demostrado con holgura su viabilidad y efectividad frente al problema de control visual de servos abordado

Smart Manufacturing

This book is a collection of 11 articles that are published in the corresponding Machines Special Issue “Smart Manufacturing”. It represents the quality, breadth and depth of the most updated study in smart manufacturing (SM); in particular, digital technologies are deployed to enhance system smartness by (1) empowering physical resources in production, (2) utilizing virtual and dynamic assets over the Internet to expand system capabilities, (3) supporting data-driven decision-making activities at various domains and levels of businesses, or (4) reconfiguring systems to adapt to changes and uncertainties. System smartness can be evaluated by one or a combination of performance metrics such as degree of automation, cost-effectiveness, leanness, robustness, flexibility, adaptability, sustainability, and resilience. This book features, firstly, the concepts digital triad (DT-II) and Internet of digital triad things (IoDTT), proposed to deal with the complexity, dynamics, and scalability of complex systems simultaneously. This book also features a comprehensive survey of the applications of digital technologies in space instruments; a systematic literature search method is used to investigate the impact of product design and innovation on the development of space instruments. In addition, the survey provides important information and critical considerations for using cutting edge digital technologies in designing and manufacturing space instruments