Industrial robots are gaining in popularity and intelligence. And they’re overcoming their greatest shortcoming–their inability to adapt to change. Find out how manufacturers are benefiting:

Robots are becoming the go-to guys for manufacturers pursuing new ways to reduce costs, bolster quality and increase productivity. After a few years of lethargic growth, demand is on the upswing. According to Michigan-based Robotic Industries Association, new orders for industrial robots from the North American market rose by 13% during the first nine months of last year. And that robust demand will likely persist throughout this year.

While robots have long boosted output by accelerating the speed and precision of assembly, they have remained “dumb” for years. Their most glaring shortcoming has been their inability to adjust to any sort of change. They were often rendered useless when a part strayed from its usual position by a millimeter. Now, industrial robots come equipped with vision guidance systems that enable them to take positioning changes in stride. They can now “see” because of a single compact camera and software that gleans 3D visual information from a 2D image.

“With the 2D vision, all of a sudden all you need is a belt conveyor, and if that part is put somewhere near the robot, the vision system can see it, it can pass the information to the robot, the robot can pick it,” Dick Johnson, material handling general manager at Michigan-based Fanuc Robotics America Inc., tells Manufacturing Engineering. With the ability to process visual information, these smarter industrial robots can move their six axes (X, Y, Z, pitch, yaw and roll) accordingly to handle parts with precision. Ford, GM and other auto manufacturers are putting such vision-guided robots to use in the assembly of transmission housings, cylinder heads, intake manifolds, brake rotors and other parts.

Vision-guided robots are imparting a wide range of benefits to factories. For starters, they can be installed on current assembly lines to reduce equipment costs, downtime and workplace injuries. Because they can handle positioning variations, they eliminate the need for costly, custom-built fixtures, which were once required to keep workpieces within tight tolerances. Now, robots can spot scattered parts in 3D space, making manual loading unnecessary.

What’s more, vision-guided robots can support a degree of customization. Because they don’t require reprogramming or pausing for special orders, they are helping carmakers accommodate consumer preferences for trim lines and other options. Today’s more intelligent robots can identify different requirements (say, varying doorframes) and react accurately to eliminate the need for multiple lines or time-consuming changeovers. Thus, with the aid of vision-guided robots, the same line can assemble several different car models with the same basic platform.

While it’s already delivering huge advantages, vision is just a start. In the near future, robots are expected to gain the sense of touch as well, as force-feedback sensors are refined. This will enable them to identify texture, detect small pressure changes and carry out tasks requiring greater dexterity. And as processing power increases, soon robots will be imbued with the sense of taste and even smell.

Sources:

Intelligent Robotics: The Next Step
Colin Scott
Assembly Magazine, February 1, 2005
www.assemblymag.com/CDA/ArticleInformation/features/BNP__Features__Item/0,6493,143379,00.html

Automating the Factory
Patrick Waurzyniak
Manufacturing Engineering, February 2005
www.sme.org/cgi-bin/get-mag.pl?&&ME05ART8&000007&2005/ME05ART8&ARTME&SME&

Robot Dos and Don’ts
Austin Weber
Assembly Magazine, February 1, 2005
www.assemblymag.com/CDA/ArticleInformation/features/BNP__Features__Item/0,6493,143376,00.html