122 research outputs found

    Automated Handling of Auxiliary Materials using a Multi-Kinematic Gripping System

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    Using a special, multi-kinematic gripping system, the vacuum bagging process in the manufacturing of carbon-fibre reinforced plastics (CFRP) can be automated. Using the example of a parabolic rear pressure bulkhead, the flexibility of the multi-kinematic system is used to handle largely different sized cut-pieces of auxiliary materials. Avoiding the need for special gripping systems for each part greatly reduces the cost for automation because it allows using a single system for a broad variety of different tasks. With a genetic algorithm for optimization, the high redundancy created by using several robots with each 6 or 7 degrees of freedom can be solved. The overall process is simulated using a 3D visualization environment and therefore can be programmed completely offline before being executed with real robot hardwar

    Darstellung eines erprobten Automatisierungskonzeptes zur robotergestützten Ablage eines großflächigen generischen FML-Bauteils.

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    Aufgrund der steigenden Anforderungen in der Produktion hinsichtlich Qualitaet und Stueckzahl pro Zeiteinheit und aufgrund des gleichzeitig steigenden Kostendruckes finden auch im Bereich der FML-Bauteilherstellung seit einiger Zeit Automatisierungsanstrengungen statt. Neben den Kosten sind für die Automatisierung der FML-Bauteilherstellung die Faktoren Material, Bauteilaufbau und Prozesskette wichtige Kenngrößen. Am Zentrum für Leichtbauproduktionstechnologie Sued am Standort Augsburg wurden 2019 in Zusammenarbeit mit der Firma Fokker einige prototypische Prozessschritte zur automatisierten Aluminium- und Glasfaserablage für ein generisches Bauteil entwickelt und getestet. Dieses kann als erster Teilschritt in Richtung einer Prozesskette zum Single-Shot Bonding gesehen werden. Besondere Herausforderungen ergaben sich hierbei aus den Bauteilabmessungen, welche ca. 5m x 9m betrugen, sowie den notwendigen konstruktiven Erweiterungen der Anlagentechnik. Dieses Paper beschreibt die Ausgangssituation und die bestehenden Herausforderungen, die für den Ablege-Vorgang verwendete Anlagentechnik sowie dessen Erweiterungen. Weiterhin wird auf die Herausforderungen bezüglich der Offline-Bahnplanung eingegangen und dem Zusammenspiel zwischen den verwendeten Materialien und der Anlagentechnik

    In-situ elastic calibration of robots: Minimally-invasive technology, cover-based pose search and aerospace case studies

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    This paper presents a novel technology for the in-situ robot elastic calibration (IREC) in industrial settings. It was especially formulated for robots that are used for accuracy demanding processes involving an exchange of force between the robot and the processed part. The calibration method was developed to conciliate requirements of minimal invasiveness, for seamless deployment in industrial settings, together with a high degree of coherence with the spectrum of action of the robot in production. The method relies on the achievement of a set of controlled load cases exerted in tribologically resisted directions after the robot is engaged against a constraint in order to establish accurate force-displacement relationships. A minimal set of engagement poses is efficiently determined using a new pose search technique involving a metric cover-based approximation heuristics applied on the surface of the constraint. The calibration apparatus and method are presented through the lens of accuracy competency development charts (Codecs), the graphical outputs of a repeated cross-validation algorithm. This new monitoring tool allows visualizing how the accuracy of deviation under load prediction grows during the calibration as a function of the number and distribution of calibration poses, and how this growth is influenced by the complexity of the load cases and that of the elastic model. Two case studies are presented to highlight both the efficiency and generality of the proposed method and algorithms, first the robotized automated fiber placement (AFP) processing of a 3D thermoplastic aerostructure and subsequently the robotized machining of a representative primary aluminium aerospace part. In these applications, the mean deviations were reduced respectively by 89.30 % and 83.08 %, allowing the achievement of the desired process tolerances

    ROBUST ASSEMBLY - QUALITY ASSURED WELDING TECHNOLOGIES FOR FULL-SCALE APPLICATIONS

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    Thermoplastic welding technologies offer the possibility of producing an integral assembly out of two or more separate components, with an interface that is non-distinguishable to the component structure itself. However, institutional research on thermoplastic welding technologies is mostly focusing the technology readiness levels (TRL) one to three, demonstrating the validity of the functional principle in a reduced scale. Within the European Clean Sky 2 (CS 2) initiative, the Multifunctional Fuselage Demonstrator (MFFD) an eight-meter long, cylindrical aircraft fuselage barrel will be manufactured challenging different thermoplastic part manufacturing and welding technologies in full scale. Within this paper we are focusing to present the custom-made welding jigs and end-effectors for ultrasonic and resistance welding, developed for the MFFD upper shell assembly. To assure adequate integrated quality assurance the weld tools are equipped with various sensors for component positioning and process control. The accumulated data are validated and inline stored within a storage for heterogenous product and research data (shepard) to assure the robust process execution and safeguard traceability

    The Proteome of BLOC-1 Genetic Defects Identifies the Arp2/3 Actin Polymerization Complex to Function Downstream of the Schizophrenia Susceptibility Factor Dysbindin at the Synapse

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    Proteome modifications downstream of monogenic or polygenic disorders have the potential to uncover novel molecular mechanisms participating in pathogenesis and/or extragenic modification of phenotypic expression. We tested this idea by determining the proteome sensitive to genetic defects in a locus encoding dysbindin, a protein required for synapse biology and implicated in schizophrenia risk. We applied quantitative mass spectrometry to identify proteins expressed in neuronal cells the abundance of which was altered after downregulation of the schizophrenia susceptibility factor dysbindin (Bloc1s8) or two other dysbindin-interacting polypeptides, which assemble into the octameric biogenesis of lysosome-related organelles complex 1 (BLOC-1). We found 491 proteins sensitive to dysbindin and BLOC-1 loss of function. Gene ontology of these 491 proteins singled out the actin cytoskeleton and the actin polymerization factor, the Arp2/3 complex, as top statistical molecular pathways contained within the BLOC-1-sensitive proteome. Subunits of the Arp2/3 complex were downregulated by BLOC-1 loss of function, thus affecting actin dynamics in early endosomes of BLOC-1-deficient cells. Furthermore, we demonstrated that Arp2/3, dysbindin, and subunits of the BLOC-1 complex biochemically and genetically interact, modulating Drosophila melanogaster synapse morphology and homeostatic synaptic plasticity. Our results indicate that ontologically prioritized proteomics identifies novel pathways that modify synaptic phenotypes associated with neurodevelopmental disorder gene defects

    To degrade or not to degrade:mechanisms and significance of endocytic recycling

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    Embedding Real-Time Critical Robotics Applications in an Object-Oriented Language

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    Industrial robots are very flexible machines that can perform almost any task – depending on the tools attached and the program they run. Nowadays industrial robots are mostly programmed using proprietary programming languages provided by the robots' manufacturers. These languages are mostly based on very old programming languages and lack support for modern concepts such as object-oriented design; and programs can rarely be reused. To reduce the cost of robot programming, improving reusability is a key instrument. This can be achieved e.g. by using an object-oriented design process. However, standard off-the-shelf programming languages cannot fulfill the hard real-time requirements of robotics applications and robot control. This thesis introduces a data-flow graph based interface that allows the specification of real-time critical tasks, the Real-time Primitives Interface (RPI). Larger robot applications can be split up into independent parts that inherently require real-time safety (such as single motions, or synchronized tool actions). Each such part can be expressed using the RPI and executed with all timing guarantees. The tasks themselves can be specified and joined using an object-oriented interface. To achieve guaranteed transitions from one or more tasks to another set of tasks, synchronization rules are introduced. A reference implementation, the SoftRobot RCC has been created to execute robot programs specified using RPI. To convert programs specified using the object-oriented Robotics API framework, an automatic mapping algorithm from Java-based applications to data-flow-based real-time tasks is presented

    Managing extensibility and maintainability of industrial robotics software

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