Manufacturing Robots Research Paper Samples

Research paper

References
A. K. Gupta, S. K. Arora. (2013). Industrial Automation and Robotics
Balkeshwar Singh, N. Sellappan, Kumaradhas P.(2013). Evolution of Industrial Robots and their Applications
Helmi A. Youssef, Hassan A. El-Hofy, Mahmoud H. Ahmed. (2012). Manufacturing Technology: Materials, Processes, and Equipment
Isak Karabegović, Edina Karabegović, Ermin Husak. (2011). Industrial robots and their application in serving cnc machine tools
John Frank Weaver. (2014). Robots Are People Too: How Siri, Google Car and Artificial Intelligence will force us to change our laws
Karl Mathia. (2010). Robotics for Electronics Manufacturing: Principles and Applications in cleanroom automation
R. Schilling. (2013). Fundamentals of Robotics
Saeed Niku. (2011). Introduction to Robotics
T. Bajd, M.Mihelj , J. Lenarcic. (2010). Robotics
World Robotics 2014 Industrial Robots. http://www.ifr.org/uploads/media/Executive_Summary_WR_2014_01.pdf
Manufacturing Robots
Automation of production processes has led to the emergence of fundamentally new devices for performance of auxiliary and assembling operations- machines in their actions in varying degrees that reproduce motor and even intellectual functions of people which are called robots. Manufacturing robot - a manipulative robot designed to perform motor and management functions in the manufacturing process, i.e. an automatic device consisting of a manipulator and reprogrammable control device, which forms the control effects, setting the desired motions of the executive bodies of the manipulator. It is used to move the objects of production and for performing of different technological operations. A manufacturing robot is an automatic machine, stationary or mobile, consisting of executive device in the form of manipulator that has several degrees of mobility, and reprogrammable device of program management to perform motor and control functions in the manufacturing process. (Saeed, 2011, p. 1-6)
In industry, along with the manipulator robots that gained the greatest distribution, mobile (locomotive), information, information management, complex and other types of industrial robots are used. Industrial robots are usually one of the components of the automated industrial systems used in the flexible automated manufactures that at a constant level of quality can increase the productivity of labor as a whole. The use of industrial robots in conjunction with other means of manufacturing automation (automatic lines, stations and complexes) is economically beneficial. (A. K. Gupta, 2013, p.268)
The history of manufacturing robots creation
The appearance of mechanical manipulators, and then programming systems led to the development of industrial robots, i. e. manipulators with program management, designed to perform a variety of work operations.
The beginning of the development of industrial robots. The impetus for the emergence of manipulators of industrial applications was the beginning of the nuclear age. In 1947, a group of employees in the US Argonne National Laboratory headed by Raymond C. Goertz developed the first automatic electromechanical manipulator with the copier control, which repeated movements of the human operator and replaced radioactive materials. It has been difficult to perform such operations as rotation of a spanner or positioning of objects on the surface using a manipulator, because it provided no feedback by force. However, in 1948 the company «General Electric» developed copying manipulator "Handy Man", in which there was such feedback, and the operator could perceive forces acting on gripper of the manipulator.
The first industrial robots began to develop in the mid 50-ies of XX century in the United States. In 1954, the American engineer George Devol developed a method of controlling the loading and unloading manipulator using interchangeable punched cards and filed a patent application for designed by him "programmable device for carrying objects," i.e. robot for industrial use. Together with Joseph Engelberger in 1956 he organized the world's first company to produce industrial robots. Its name «Unimation » is an abbreviation of the term «Universal Automation». (John Frank, 2014, p.99-101)
The advent of robotized production. In 1962, the US has created the world's first industrial robots "Unimate" and "Versatran". Their similarity with a person was limited to availability of the manipulator, remotely resembling a human hand. Some of them are still working, exceeding 100,000 hours of working resources. Industrial robot "Unimate" had 5 degrees of mobility with hydraulic drive and two-finger gripping device with pneumatic actuator. The movement of objects weighing up to 12 kg was carried out with an accuracy of 1.25 mm. Robot memorized the coordinates of points and could automatically move from one point to another in a predetermined sequence, repeating several times an operating cycle. On the operation of unloading of machines for injection molding "Unimate" worked with a capacity of 135 parts per hour, while the performance of manual unloading was 108 parts per hour. Industrial robot "Versatran", which had three degrees of mobility and control from the magnetic tape could at a kiln load and unload up to 1200 hot bricks per hour. Technological robots that perform operations such as high-speed cutting, painting, welding are rapidly developing. The appearance in the 70s of microprocessor control systems and replacement of specialized control devices for programmable controllers has lowered the cost of robots in three times, making cost - effective their mass adoption in the industry. This was facilitated by the objective conditions of industrial development. (Karl, 2010, p.1-2)
Functional scheme of industrial robot
Industrial robot consists of five main parts: a robotic arm, controller, actuator, sensor and an end effector. All actions of the robot coordinates the chip - controller. The robotic arm moves the end effector. The mobility of the hand provides the drive - an electric motor. With the help of sensor a robot detects an object with which it will work. Industrial robots are automatic manipulators, operated by means of software. They perform working operations with complex movements in space. (R. Schilling, 2013, p. 29 -30)
In structure of the robot there is a mechanical part and control system of the mechanical part, which in turn receives signals from the sensor part. The mechanical part of the robot is divided into manipulative system with gripping device or technological instrument and transfer system.
Manipulators. Manipulator is a mechanism for attitude control of instruments and objects of labor. Manipulators comprise movable units of two types: units providing reciprocating motion and units providing rotational movement. Combination and mutual arrangement of units determine the degree of mobility and the scope of the robotic manipulative system. To ensure propulsion in units the electrical, hydraulic or pneumatic actuator may be used. Part of the manipulators (though not necessarily) are gripping devices. The most universal gripping devices similar to a man's hand - capture is performed by mechanical "fingers". To capture flat objects the gripping devices with pneumatic sucker are used. To capture the same set of similar items (which normally occurs during the application of industrial robots) specialized constructions are used. Instead of grippers a manipulator can be equipped with a working tool. It can be pulverizer, welding clamps, screwdriver and so on. (T. Bajd et al. 2010, p 3, 6-8)
The system of motion. In premises, industrial facilities the motion along monorails, at outdoor rut and so on are used. For moving on inclined and vertical surfaces the systems similar to "step" design are used but with pneumatic suction cups.
Control system. Control system is of several types:
Program control - the simplest type of control system used to control the manipulators at industrial facilities. In such robots there is no sensory part, all actions are firmly fixed and regularly repeated. For programming such robots can be used programming environments such as VxWorks / Eclipse or programming languages such as Forth, Oberon, Component Pascal, C.
Adaptive control - robots with adaptive control system has a touch part. The signals transmitted by the sensors are analyzed and depending on the results a decision is made on how to proceed, on the transition to the next stage of actions and so on.
Based on methods of artificial intelligence. Such robots are capable by means of sensor devices independently perceive and recognize the situation, build a model of the environment, and automatically make a decision on further action, as well as educate themselves as they gain their own experience of activity.
Managing by a person (for example, remote control).
Modern robots operate on the basis of the principles of feedback, of subordinate control and hierarchy of the robot control system. Hierarchical construction of the robot control system involves dividing the control system into horizontal layers (levels): at the top level the overall behavior of the robot is managed; at the level of motion planning the required trajectory of the working body is calculated; at the level of coordination of drives a coordinated work of drives is organized, providing the required movement of the working body and, finally, at the level of the drive an engine management is carried out directly responsible for a particular degree of mobility of manipulator. (R. Schilling, 2013, p. 26 -27)
Subordinate management serves to build a system of drive control. If it is necessary to build a system for controlling the drive by position (for example, by the angle of rotation of the manipulator unit), the control system is closed by position feedback, and inside the control system on the situation operates the speed control system with its speed feedback.
Modern robot is equipped with not only position feedback, speed and acceleration units. When capturing details, robot needs to know whether it successfully captured the detail. If the item is fragile or its surface has a high degree of purity, complex systems with force feedback are built, allowing the robot grasp detail without damaging its surface and not destroying it. Controlling the robot is implemented by control system of industrial enterprise (ERP-system), matching actions of the robot to work with workpieces and machine tools with numerical program control to perform manufacturing operations. (Balkeshwar, 2013, p. 765-766)
Information-sensory system. In the mid-1990s adaptive industrial robots equipped with sensor devices emerged in the markets. Modern information and sensory systems used in robotics represent a set of functionally united measuring and computing facilities, the task of which is to obtain information from various sensors and its processing for subsequent use of management system. The sensors used in modern robotic systems are varied and can be divided into the following groups: internal or kinesthetic sensors that give information about the values of coordinates and efforts in the joints of the manipulator and external sensors for obtaining information about the external environment. (Saeed, 2011, p.6-8)
The use of an industrial robot
Industrial robots can be used in all industrial sectors. Various aspects of the application of industrial robots are considered to be generally within the framework of model projects of industrial production - based on the requirements the best option is chosen, which concretizes required task for this type of robots, their number, as well as addresses issues of food infrastructure (power liner, coolant supply - in case of using liquid cooling) and integration into the production process (provision of blanks / semi-finished and return of the finished product in automatic line for transmission to the next technological operation). Industrial robots in the manufacturing process are able to perform basic and auxiliary technological operations. The main technological operations include the operations of shaping in the direct implementation, changes of the linear dimensions of the workpiece and others. Auxiliary technological operations are transport operations, including operations on loading and unloading of technological equipment. (I. Karabegović, 2011, p. 341-344)
Among the most common actions performed by industrial robots are the following:
the transfer of materials (carry of details and preparations from machine to machine or conveyor to conveyor, piling, work with pallets, packing parts into packagings, and so on);
maintenance of machine tools and machines (loading and unloading of machine tools, holding of the workpiece);
arc and spot welding;
injection molding;
forging and stamping;
spray coating;
other processing operations (drilling, milling, riveting, water jet cutting, cleaning, grinding, polishing);
assembly of mechanical, electrical and electronic components;
product quality control, and others.
The main constraining factor of robots introduction is the high price of installation, so their use is relevant only at large and mass productions. At the moment, the most reliable is recognized equipments of following manufacturers: Kuka (Germany), Fanuc (Japan), ABB (Sweden). (Helmi A. Youssef, 2012, p.628)
The advantages of using manufacturing robots
The use of robots in the industrial production has a number of advantages. Manufacturing robots increase labor productivity (because they give the possibility of using the technological equipment in three or four shifts, 365 days a year); reduce production costs and increase competitiveness; rationally use equipment and production facilities; improve product quality, associated with an increase in the accuracy of technological operations; eliminate the influence of human factors on the assembly-line production, as well as during monotonous work requiring high precision. They also exclude the impact of harmful factors on personnel specific to industries with increased risk and reduce the payback period of the investment. The use of industrial robots in the production is a real chance increase the profitability of the enterprise. . (A. K. Gupta, 2013, p.268 -270)
Markets for industrial robots
According to the International Federation of Robotics, in 2013 the world sales volume of industrial robots amounted to 178,132 units (an increase of 12% compared with the previous year). The largest market for industrial robots became the People's Republic of China, the enterprises of which bought 36,560 industrial robots. It is followed by Japan (25 110 units), the United States (23 700 units), the Republic of Korea (21,307 units), Germany (18,297 units) and other industrialized countries. The greatest number of new industrial robots - 69,400 - was established in the automotive industry; second place is occupied by enterprises of electro technical and electronic industries (36 200 units), the third - enterprises of metalworking and engineering industries (16 500 units). (World Robotics 2014)