Investigating the Influences of Automated Guided Vehicles (AGVs) as Material Transportation for Automotive Assembly Process / Seha Saffar...[et al.]

Optimizing material handling system adds to the performance level of the manufacturing process and at the same time avoid waste of time and cost. A case study at one of automotive manufacturing industry, focusing on observing the material flow between warehouse and assembly shop are done and the result showed the work is manually done. It’s caused a longer time in handling the material and risk in damaging parts. Thus, a work presented in this paper is based on real industry situation, with the purpose of investigating the influences of AGV’s application in the automotive assembly process. AGV (material transportation) and Pick-To-Light system (part supply system) are used as variable to improve the current case study performance. But in this paper, the result of comparison between transportation is discussed, focusing on the influences of AGV only. A method of discrete-event simulation using Delmia/Quest software was introduced. 2 models for each type of transportation is made in Quest with a very similar assembly process from the real situation in automotive industry and the result is compared to see the influenced of the AGV to the system performance. Based on the comparison, the part supply in the assembly process increase by 70% from its current state. Meanwhile, transportation idle time reduce by 26% and part waiting time at warehouse reduce at most 85%. Thus, transportation utilized more into 30% by applying AGV as material transportation. From the improvement made shows the influence of AGV in case study company as well as manufacturing industry

Finite Element Analysis of Plate Structure Excited by Patches of Piezoelectric Actuators

Active damping using piezoelectric element is one of the effective technique to counter vibration problems. A 3D finite element model is developed as part of investigation for active damping control. The piezoelectric are surface bonded with quadrilateral thin plate and supported with spring damper elements. This simulation project focuses on analysis of the piezoelectric actuators to achieve active damping on plate structure at low frequency spectrum. By numerical simulation the effect of the system in actuator mode at appropriate electric excitation from piezoelectric actuator are investigated. The force induced by piezoelectric actuator under certain applied voltage fields is used as load. Natural frequency of the system and corresponding mode shape are presented and the double symmetric mode shapes are examined. The result can be used as reference or validation of optimal locations and configuration of the piezoelectric patches for active damping control system

Development of PLC Based Navigation System for Mobile Robot

A programmed machine called mobile robot has a skilled of movement in any controlled environment. Microcontroller/microprocessor based controllers is known as the best controller for mobile robot. The difficulties of applying the Microcontroller/microprocessor based controllers as well as writing the program in it bring the attention of researches to look for easier controller such as Programmable Logic Controller (PLC). Yet, it is still very few mobile robots which used PLC as the navigation controller. This project is motivated by this situation, with a consideration to develop the type of mobile robot which is controlled by PLC because of the lack of mobile robot developed under control by PLC. Therefore, this project is trying to develop a PLC based navigation system for mobile robot, by developing the algorithm and analyze the performance of the mobile robot able to follow line hypothetically. All related works with comprised information about mobile robot, controller system and application of PLC in mobile robot navigation system are reviewed. The method to complete this project is starting with designing the program using PLC software, apply the commissioning of the PLC into a mobile robot with complete circuit wiring and analyze the project. To analyze the project, a navigation experiment is done under 2 different paths and each path is repeated for 5 times. The experiment was represented using line graph in order to know the effectiveness of the mobile robot movement using PLC system. Both path showed a good result with tolerance about 5-10% of error thus it prove the hypothesis. Lastly, as a conclusion, the significant finding in this project is proved that PLC is able to be applied as line following mobile robot control system

Methodology On Investigating The Influences Of Automated Material Handling System In Automotive Assembly Process

A case study was selected as a method to collect data in actual industry situation. The study aimed to assess the influences of automated material handling system in automotive industry by proposing a new design of integration system through simulation, and analyze the significant effect and influence of the system. The method approach tool will be CAD Software (Delmia & Quest). The process of preliminary data gathering in phase 1 will collect all data related from actual industry situation. It is expected to produce a guideline and limitation in designing a new integration system later. In phase 2, an idea or concept of design will be done by using 10 principles of design consideration for manufacturing. A full factorial design will be used as design of experiment in order to analyze the performance measured of the integration system with the current system in case study. From the result of the experiment, an ANOVA analysis will be done to study the performance measured. Thus, it is expected that influences can be seen from the improvement made in the system

Pilot Study of Emotion Recognition through Facial Expression

This paper presents our finding from a pilot study on human reaction through facial expression as well as brainwave changes when being induced by audio-visual stimuli while using the Emotiv Epoc equipment. We hypothesize that Emotiv Epoc capable to detect the emotion of the participants and the graphs would match with facial expression display. In this study, four healthy men were chosen and being induced with eight videos, six videos are predefined whereas the other two videos are personalized. We aim for identifying the optimum set up for the real experiment, to validate the capability of the Emotiv Epoc and to obtain spontaneous facial expression database. Thus, from the pilot study, the principal result shows that emotion is better if being induced by using personalized videos. Not only that, it also shows the brainwave produced by Emotiv Epoc is aligned with the facial expression especially for positive emotion cases. Hence, it is possible to obtain spontaneous database in the present of Emotiv Epoc

Fusion of Fuzzy AHP in selecting material for drinking water bottle based on customer needs

In this paper, selection of drinking water bottle material is to be selected. Therefore, to try out decision making tools efficiency, three methods have been used. The methods are fusion of Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) with Fuzzy logic with different membership function. The material selected are silicone, polypropylene, HDPE, LDPE and Tin. The criterion that being taken into consideration are price, density, tensile strength, thermal conductivity and electrical resistivity. Three methods have been carried out, and the weightage compared in the form of line graph. The best material gave by traditional AHP and trapezoidal AHP are Polypropylene, however triangular AHP gave LDPE is the best. But all three methods shows that tin is the least desirable when it does not satisfy all criterions

Analysis of unimorph piezoceramic patches on damped square shaped plate

Active damping using piezoelectric element is one of the effective techniques to counter vibration problems. A 3D finite-element model is developed as part of investigation for damping control. The piezoelectric patches are surface bonded on quadrilateral thin plate and supported with spring damper elements. The main goal of this paper is to investigate mechanical characteristics of piezoceramic array on membrane and the effect of force excitation using small motor and electric excitation on the system. The system setup produced small vibration displacement and does not displace the plate beyond elastic strain region. The results show the linear behavior of piezoceramic and the correlation between electric excitation, motor vibration and displacement at the centre of the plate at different frequency range. The mode shapes and natural frequencies at low frequency spectrum are also presented. Therefore, the results can be used as reference to develop damping system with aid of piezoelectric patches

Vision-Based Tactile Paving Detection Method in Navigation Systems for Visually Impaired Persons

In general, a visually impaired person relies on guide canes in order to walk outside besides depending only on a tactile pavement as a warning and directional tool in order to avoid any obstructions or hazardous situations. However, still a lot of training is needed in order to recognize the tactile pattern, and it is quite difficult for persons who have recently become visually impaired. This chapter describes the development and evaluation of vision-based tactile paving detection method for visually impaired persons. Some experiments will be conducted on how it works to detect the tactile pavement and identify the shape of tactile pattern. In this experiment, a vision-based method is proposed by using MATLAB including the Arduino platform and speaker as guidance tools. The output of this system based on the result found from tactile detection in MATLAB then produces auditory output and notifies the visually impaired about the type of tactile detected. Consequently, the development of tactile pavement detection system can be used by visually impaired persons for easy detection and navigation purposes