Active vibration control and real-time cutter path modification in rotary wood planing

Forced structural vibration and cutting tool inaccuracy have been identified to be the primary causes of surface defects in rotary wood planing. This paper presents the development of a control strategy used to compensate for the effects of both vibration and cutting tool inaccuracy on planed wood surface finish. The solution is based on active vibration control and real-time modification of the cutting tool trajectory using an optimal Linear Quadratic Gaussian tracking controller. A small-scale mechatronic wood planing machine, which has an actively controlled spindle unit, has been designed for practical investigation of the proposed technique. Experimental results show that the applied compensation increased the dynamic performance of the machine and the quality of the surface finish produced

In-process surface profile assessment of rotary machined timber using a dynamic photometric stereo technique

Machining operations have advanced in speed and there is an increasing demand for higher quality surface finish. It is therefore necessary to develop real-time surface inspection techniques which will provide sensory information for controlling the machining processes. This paper describes a practical method for real-time analysis of planed wood using the photometric stereo technique. Earlier research has shown that the technique is very effective in assessing surface waviness on static wood samples. In this paper, the photometric stereo method is extended to real industrial applications where samples are subjected to rapid movements. Surface profiles extracted from the dynamic photometric stereo method are compared with those from the static measurements and the results show that there is a high correlation between the two methods

Robotic assembly of threaded fasteners in a non-structured environment

Over the past two decades, a major part of the manufacturing and assembly market has been driven by the increasing demand for customised products. This has created the need for smaller batch sizes, shorter production times, lower costs, and the flexibility to produce families of products—or to assemble different parts—with the same sets of equipment. Consequently, manufacturing companies have deployed various automation systems and production strategies to improve their resource efficiency and move towards right-first-time production. Threaded fastening operations are widely used in assembly and are typically time-consuming and costly. In high-volume production, fastening operations are commonly automated using jigs, fixtures, and semi-automated tools. However, in low-volume, high-value manufacturing, fastening operations are carried out manually by skilled workers. The existing approaches are found to be less flexible and robust for performing assembly in a less structured industrial environment. This motivated the development of a flexible solution, which does not require fixtures and is adaptable to variation in part locations and lighting conditions. As a part of this research, a novel 3D threaded hole detection and a fast bolt detection algorithms are proposed and reported in this article, which offer substantial enhancement to the accuracy, repeatability, and the speed of the processes in comparison with the existing methods. Hence, the proposed method is more suitable for industrial applications. The development of an automated bolt fastening demonstrator is also described in this article to test and validate the proposed identification algorithms on complex components located in 3D space

Performance evaluation of a three dimensional laser scanner for industrial applications

Laser scanners are nowadays extensively used in industries due to their high accuracy, resolution and robustness. However, the specifications provided with most laser scanners are debatable and without proper analysis the output results from the scanners cannot be trusted. The performance of laser based scanners depends on many aspects including ambient lighting condition, surface reflectivity, surface roughness and stand-off distance. In this paper, a set of performance evaluation tests for a three dimensional (3D) laser scanner is presented. An initial definition of the best strategy for testing prior to its use is proposed. The performance of the scanner was evaluated under different operating conditions such as different surface reflectivity, viewing angle, surface roughness and stand-off distance. The optimum working range of the laser scanner was established and the regions where the laser scanner produces inappropriate data was identified and quantified. A similar testing approach can be used for any industrial laser scanner prior to its application to minimize any unambiguity in measurements. This will also enable the users to have confidence in the measurements returned by laser scanners