Generating Optimized Trajectories for Robotic Spray Painting

In the manufacturing industry, spray painting is often an important part of the manufacturing process. Especially in the automotive industry, the perceived quality of the final product is closely linked to the exactness and smoothness of the painting process. For complex products or low batch size production, manual spray painting is often used. But in large scale production with a high degree of automation, the painting is usually performed by industrial robots. There is a need to improve and simplify the generation of robot trajectories used in industrial paint booths. A novel method for spray paint optimization is presented, which can be used to smooth out a generated initial trajectory and minimize paint thickness deviations from a target thickness. The smoothed out trajectory is found by solving, using an interior point solver, a continuous non-linear optimization problem. A two-dimensional reference function of the applied paint thickness is selected by fitting a spline function to experimental data. This applicator footprint profile is then projected to the geometry and used as a paint deposition model. After generating an initial trajectory, the position and duration of each trajectory segment are used as optimization variables. The primary goal of the optimization is to obtain a paint applicator trajectory, which would closely match a target paint thickness when executed. The algorithm has been shown to produce satisfactory results on both a simple 2-dimensional test example, and a non-trivial industrial case of painting a tractor fender. The resulting trajectory is also proven feasible to be executed by an industrial robot

An immersed boundary method for simulation of flow with heat transfer

In this work, the hybrid immersed boundary method is extended with immersed boundary conditions for the temperature field. The method is used to couple the flow solver with a shell heat transfer solver. The coupling back to the shell is handled by a heat source, calculated from Fourier's law. Natural convection in a square cavity with and without a hot circular cylinder, and free air cooling of an electrically heated plate are studied. For all cases an excellent agreement with numerical and experimental data is obtained. The proposed method is very well suited for many industrial applications involving natural convection

Multiobjective optimization applied to design of PIFA Antennas

In this paper multiobjective optimization is applied to antenna design. The optimization algorithm is a novel response surface method based on approximation with radial basis functions. It is combined with CAD and mesh generation software, and electromagnetic solvers. To demonstrate the procedure we optimize the geometric design and feed position of a PIFA antenna located on a ground plane

Index 1946

This is the College of Wooster Index from 1946. At the beginning of the Index is a dedication to the Rock of Ages. The dedication reads, \u27Rock of Ages\u27...age of dreams...dreams of wisdom...In memoriam to those who through the ages dream of wisdom and consecrate themselves to it, we pledge ourselves. Under crosses on Iwo Jima and in the heart of France lie the \u27might have beens\u27; in the classrooms of Wooster sits the future for which they sacrificed. To take up their crosses, to laden them with intellect and culture, to adorn them with integrity and virtue is our duty and privilege. It is to them, the youth who died, yearning for knowledge, striving for glory, that we are eternally indebted. Their names and deeds are engraved on our hearts; their hopes and dreams are forever embodied in our \u27Rock of Ages.\u27 Then, there are photographs of the academic buildings on campus. After this, there is a section dedicated to the faculty of Wooster. There is also sections of portraits of students for each class, and a collection of photographs of student life and extracurriculars on campus. The Index ends with a student directory and advertisements from businesses around Wooster.https://openworks.wooster.edu/index1920-1970/1000/thumbnail.jp

A virtual framework for simulation of complex viscoelastic flows

A framework is presented and demonstrated in which extrusion and laydown of viscoelastic fluids can be simulated. Examples include application of seam sealing and adhesive material, and additive manufacturing processes. A state of the art fluid flow solver is used to solve the flow equations and various rheological constitutive models are supported, such as shear thinning viscosity models or more complex viscoelastic stress models. With connection to robot path planning software the framework can be used in the product preparation phase to improve quality, reduce material consumption and commissioning time

Simulating geometrical variation in injection molding

In every manufacturing process there are variations from nominal values that cause part- and assembly variation which can lead to deficient products. Knowledge of this variation and the ability to simulate them are important in developing design concepts. Plastics are predicted to have increased importance in the manufacturing industry. However, there is a lack of understanding of the variation in the produced plastic parts and how designers should take these variations under consideration. Existing software for simulating plastic parts produced in the injection molding process is not useful for variation simulation because of long running times. In this paper a procedure to simulate part variation using a regression model is presented. This regression model is build and fitted using design of computer experiments. Further, the contributions of process parameters on plastic part variation are analyzed. A case study conducted on a cell phone shell resulted in a regressio n model that was able to give close agreement with the injection molding simulation and thus enabling variation simulation. The process parameters contributing the most to geometrical variation were melt temperature and packing time