|
Industrial robot types, features The most commonly used robot configurations for industrial automation, include articulated robots (The first and most common) SCARA robots and gantry robots (aka Cartesian Coordinate robots, or x-y-z robots). In the context of general robotics, most types of industrial robots would fall into the category of robot arms (inherent in the use of the word manipulator in the above-mentioned ISO standard). Industrial robots exhibit varying degrees of autonomy. Robots are programmed to faithfully carry out specific actions over and over again without variation and with a high degree of accuracy. These actions are determined by programmed routines that specify the direction, acceleration, velocity, deceleration, and distance of a series of coordinated motions. Other industrial robots are much more flexible as to the orientation of the object on which they are operating or even the task that has to be performed on the object itself, which the robot may even need to identify. For example, for more precise guidance, robots often contain machine vision sub-systems acting as their "eyes", linked to powerful computers or controllers. Artificial intelligence, or what passes for it, is becoming an increasingly important factor in the modern industrial robot. History of industrial robotics George Devol received- the first patents for robotics in 1954. The first company to produce an industrial robot was Unimation, founded by George Devol and Joseph F. Engelberger in 1956, and was based on Devol's original patents. Unimation robots were also called programmable transfer machines since their main use at first was to transfer objects from one point to another, less than a dozen feet or so apart. They used hydraulic actuators and were programmed in joint coordinates, i.e. the angles of the various joints were stored during a teaching phase and replayed in operation. For some time Unimation's only competitor was Cincinnati Milacron Inc. of Ohio. This changed radically in the late 1970s when several big Japanese conglomerates began producing similar industrial robots. Unimation had obtained patents in the United States but not in Japan who refused to abide by international patent laws, so their designs were copied. In 1969 Victor Scheinman at Stanford University invented the Stanford arm, an all-electric, 6-axis articulated robot designed to permit an arm solution. This allowed the robot to accurately follow arbitrary paths in space and widened the potential use of the robot to more sophisticated applications such as assembly and arc welding. Scheinman then designed a second arm for the MIT AI Lab, called the "MIT arm." Sheinman sold his designs to Unimation who further developed it with support from General Motors and later sold it as the Programmable Universal Machine for Assembly (PUMA). In 1973 KUKA Robotics built its first industrial robot, known as FAMULUS, this is the first articulated industrial robot to have six electromechanically driven axes. Interest in industrial robotics swelled in the late 1970s and many companies entered the field, including large firms like General Electric, and General Motors (which formed joint venture FANUC Robotics with FANUC LTD of Japan). US start-ups included Automatix and Adept Technology, Inc. At the height of the robot boom in 1984, Unimation was acquired by Westinghouse Electric Corporation for 107 million US dollars. Westinghouse sold Unimation to Stäubli Faverges SCA of France in 1988. Stäubli was still making articulated robots for general industrial and clean room applications as of 2004 and even bought the robotic division of Bosch in late 2004. Eventually the myopic vision of American industry was superseded by the financial resources and strong domestic market enjoyed by the Japanese manufacturers. Only a few non-Japanese companies managed to survive in this market, including Adept Technology, Stäubli-Unimation, the Swedish-Swiss company ABB (ASEA Brown-Boveri), the Austrian manufacturer igm Robotersysteme AG and the German company KUKA Robotics. Defining parameters Robot programming The setup or programming of motions and sequences for an industrial robot is typically taught by linking the robot controller via communication cable to the Ethernet, FireWire, USB or serial port of a laptop computer. The computer is installed with corresponding interface software. The use of a computer greatly simplifies the programming process. Robots can also be taught via teach pendant, a handheld control and programming unit. The teach pendant or PC is usually disconnected after programming and the robot then runs on the program that has been installed in its controller. In addition, machine operators often use human machine interface devices, typically touch screen units, which serve as the operator control panel. The operator can switch from program to program, make adjustments within a program and also operate a host of peripheral devices that may be integrated within the same robotic system. These peripheral devices include robot end effectors which are devices that can grasp an object, usually by vacuum, electromechanical or pneumatic devices. Also emergency stop controls, machine vision systems, safety interlock systems, bar code printers and an almost infinite array of other industrial devices are accessed and controlled via the operator control panel. Movement and singularities Most articulated robots perform by storing a series of positions in memory, and moving to them at various times in their programming. For example, a robot which is moving items from one place to another might have a simple program like this: Define points P1–P5: Define program: For a given robot the only parameters necessary to locate the end effector (gripper, welding torch, etc.) of the robot completely are the angles of each of the joints. However there are many different ways to define the points for Recent and future developments As of 2005, the robotic arm business is getting to a mature state, where they can provide enough speed, accuracy and ease of use for most of the applications. Vision guidance (aka machine vision) is bringing a lot of flexibility to robotic cells. So we have the arm and the eye, but the part that still has poor flexibility is the hand: the end effector attached to a robot is often a simple pneumatic, 2-position wrench. This doesn't allow the robotic cell to easily handle different parts, in different orientations. Hand in hand with increasing off-line programmed applications, robot calibration is becoming more and more important in order to guarantee a good positioning accuracy. Other developments include downsizing industrial arms for consumer applications and using industrial arms in combination with more intelligent automated guided vehicles (AGVs) to make the automation chain more flexible between pick-up and drop-off. Prices of industrial robots will vary with the features, but are usually about 20,000 USD for an entry level model, and as much as 100,000 or more for a heavy-duty, long range robot. Industrial robot manufacturers Notes See also | |||||||||
|
| ||||||||||
 |
|
| |