Мировые тенденции и направления развития промышленных роботов

Purpose: the main purpose of this article is to analyze the main trends and directions of development of industrial robots, as well as the problems associated with their distribution. To achieve these goals, the following tasks were solved: analysis of the dynamics of the stock of industrial robots, the structure of the stock of robots by region (Europe, America, Asia / Australia), as well as the annual volumes and structure of world sales of robots by key industries; analysis of the main tasks of industrial robots, performed by them in these industries, and the directions of their use; analyze the dynamics of the robot fleet by industry in different countries (Japan, USA, South Korea, China, Germany, etc.); analysis of indicators and problems of using industrial robots in Russia.Methods: the research methodology consists in a comparative analysis of the use of industrial robots in different industries (automotive, food, chemical, electronic, etc.) based on statistical data by country. A systematic approach, tabular and graphical interpretation of information was applied, analysis of the dynamics of the levels of the time series, the calculation of growth indices of indicators.Results: the analysis showed that the use of industrial robots reduces injuries at the workplace, production costs and improves the quality of the final product, productivity, flexibility and safety, which contributes to a significant increase in their use in both developed and developing countries.Conclusions and Relevance: recently, robotization has become available even in non-industrial countries. The introduction of robotization into production processes increases the competitiveness of the economy. The acceleration of digitalization and automation, as well as the ease of use of industrial robots, are driving their proliferation. In Russia, the wider use of industrial robots, the development of the industrial Internet of things and the implementation of digitalization are possible only on the basis of the restoration and further development of mechanical engineering, electronic and other manufacturing industries.Цель. Основная цель данной статьи заключается в анализе ключевых тенденций и направлений развития промышленных роботов, а также проблем, связанных с их распространением. Для достижения поставленной цели в работе были решены следующие задачи: выполнен анализ динамики мирового парка промышленных роботов, структуры парка роботов по регионам (Европа, Америка, Азия / Австралия), а также ежегодных объемов и структуры мировых продаж роботов по ключевым отраслям промышленности; рассмотрены основные задачи промышленных роботов, выполняемые ими в этих отраслях, и направления их использования; проведены анализ динамики парка роботов по отраслям промышленности в различных странах (Япония, США, Южная Корея, Китай, Германия и др.) и анализ показателей и проблем использования промышленных роботов в России.Методы или методология проведения работы. Методология исследования состоит в сравнительном анализе применения промышленных роботов в разных отраслях промышленности (автомобильной, пищевой, химической, электронной и др.) на основе статистических данных по странам. Применены системный подход, табличная и графическая интерпретация информации, анализ динамики уровней временного ряда, расчет индексов роста показателей.Результаты работы. Проведенный анализ показал, что применение промышленных роботов обеспечивает снижение травматизма на рабочем месте, производственных затрат и повышение качества конечного продукта, производительности, гибкости и безопасности, что способствует значительному расширению их использования как в развитых, так и в развивающихся странах.Выводы. В последнее время роботизация стала доступна даже в неиндустриальных странах. Внедрение роботизации в производственные процессы повышает конкурентоспособность экономики. Ускорение цифровизации и автоматизации, а также упрощение использования промышленных роботов стимулирует их распространение. В России более широкое применение промышленных роботов, развитие промышленного интернета вещей и осуществление цифровизации возможно только на базе восстановления и дальнейшего развития машиностроения, электронной и других отраслей обрабатывающей промышленности

Mobile robots for in-process monitoring of aircraft systems assemblies

Currently, systems installed on large-scale aerospace structures are manually equipped by trained operators. To improve current methods, an automated system that ensures quality control and process adherence could be used. This work presents a mobile robot capable of autonomously inspecting aircraft systems and providing feedback to workers. The mobile robot can follow operators and localise the position of the inspection using a thermal camera and 2D lidars. While moving, a depth camera collects 3D data about the system being installed. The in-process monitoring algorithm uses this information to check if the system has been correctly installed. Finally, based on these measurements, indications are shown on a screen to provide feedback to the workers. The performance of this solution has been validated in a laboratory environment, replicating a trailing edge equipping task. During testing, the tracking and localisation systems have proven to be reliable. The in-process monitoring system was also found to provide accurate feedback to the operators. Overall, the results show that the solution is promising for industrial applications

Design of autonomous robotic system for removal of porcupine crab spines

Among various types of crabs, the porcupine crab is recognized as a highly potential crab meat resource near the off-shore northwest Atlantic ocean. However, their long, sharp spines make it difficult to be manually handled. Despite the fact that automation technology is widely employed in the commercial seafood processing industry, manual processing methods still dominate in today’s crab processing, which causes low production rates and high manufacturing costs. This thesis proposes a novel robot-based porcupine crab spine removal method. Based on the 2D image and 3D point cloud data captured by the Microsoft Azure Kinect 3D RGB-D camera, the crab’s 3D point cloud model can be reconstructed by using the proposed point cloud processing method. After that, the novel point cloud slicing method and the 2D image and 3D point cloud combination methods are proposed to generate the robot spine removal trajectory. The 3D model of the crab with the actual dimension, robot working cell, and endeffector are well established in Solidworks [1] and imported into the Robot Operating System (ROS) [2] simulation environment for methodology validation and design optimization. The simulation results show that both the point cloud slicing method and the 2D and 3D combination methods can generate a smooth and feasible trajectory. Moreover, compared with the point cloud slicing method, the 2D and 3D combination method is more precise and efficient, which has been validated in the real experiment environment. The automated experiment platform, featuring a 3D-printed end-effector and crab model, has been successfully set up. Results from the experiments indicate that the crab model can be accurately reconstructed, and the central line equations of each spine were calculated to generate a spine removal trajectory. Upon execution with a real robot arm, all spines were removed successfully. This thesis demonstrates the proposed method’s capability to achieve expected results and its potential for application in various manufacturing processes such as painting, polishing, and deburring for parts of different shapes and materials

An Investigation into a Combined Visual Servoing and Vision-Based Navigation System Robot for the Aerospace Manufacturing Industry

High-Value manufacturing, such as aerospace manufacturing, has been less impacted by the mainstream use of robotic automation compared to other manufacturing industries. This is due to the cost factor required when creating robotic systems which can successfully interact with such high tolerance work�pieces. This research aims to investigate the gap of robotics within high-value aerospace manufacturing, with the goal of creating a generic robotic algorithm which can effectively and optimally detect and trace a variety of aerostructure inspired workpieces. This goal was achieved by firstly developing a vision system for detecting and tracing particular features of partially-known workpieces. These workpieces var�ied in size and spatial profile, having both obtuse and acute edges. Once an effective vision system was developed, a variety of distribution-of-labour algorithms were developed, with the aim of dividing the task of tracing a work�piece between the kinematic arm and mobile base. The results showed that different distribution-of-labour algorithms performed differently, depending on the type of detected feature, specifically how vertically inclined the feature was. These results were used to develop an optimal distribution-of-labour algorithm, which could dynamically and optimally switch between different distribution-of-labour systems, to trace a workpiece both quickly and accurately. Results showed that an optimal distribution-of-labour algorithm decreased tracing time and increased accuracy in realistic aerostructure-inspired workpieces compared to just using one major algorithm, and could dynamically trace workpieces regardless of previous knowledge or spatial profile