Emerald | Assembly Automation | Table of Contents

Review of parts handling equipment concentrates on high speed, flexibility, and a delicate touch.

literatinetwork@emeraldinsight.com (Richard Bloss) — Fri, 26 Jul 2013 00:00:00 +0100

Abstract

Purpose - Review of the most recent PackExpo show in Chicago with emphasis on the new automation product picking, packing and order filling innovations and applications on display.Design/methodology/approach - Observing operating equipment on display and in-depth interviews with exhibitors of automated packaging machinery at the show.Findings - Automation addresses with greater accuracy and speed product packaging and order filling as well as addressing many new applications.Practical implications - Customers will be surprised at extent to which automation innovations are improving packaging efficiency, quality and addressing totally new applications.Originality/value - A review of many of the latest packaging automation innovations and applications that suppliers have developed, many on view for the first time. Answers to many of the new application needs customers may be facing.

Interactive Assembly Simulation with Haptic Feedback

Fri, 26 Jul 2013 00:00:00 +0100

Abstract

Purpose - The paper aims to present interactive simulation with haptic feedback as a valid method for solving complex assembly problems in the context of industrial product development. Its purpose is to clarify the position of interactive simulation with respect to other methods, and to emphasize its specific value for design engineers.Design/methodology/approach - The paper describes the challenges faced by design engineers in the context of Design for Assembly and Assembly Process Planning. It introduces and compares automatic path planning and interactive simulation as two different approaches for checking the feasibility of assembly tasks. It provides a review of the scientific challenges and technical issues faced when implementing interactive simulation with haptic feedback in this context. It presents recent research results in the domains of final insertion and human model simulation.Findings - The paper provides an overview of the scientific, technological and practical aspects of interactive simulation with haptic feedback. It explains how this methods benefits from the manual skills and cognitive capabilities of the human operator for solving complex assembly problems. It proposes an assessment of the technical maturity using the Technology Readiness Level approach.Originality/value - The paper gives insights about the maturity and usability of interactive assembly simulation with haptic feedback, for the benefit of design engineers seeking new ways to decrease product development time and costs while increasing quality.

a virtual reality-based methodology for measuring maintenance time in complex products

literatinetwork@emeraldinsight.com (Le Kang, Dong Zhou, Chuan Lv) — Fri, 26 Jul 2013 00:00:00 +0100

Abstract

Purpose - Maintainability is a critical design characteristic that shows how well a product can be maintained; maintenance time is a comprehensive parameter of product maintainability design. This paper aims to provide an integrated methodology for complex product maintainability verification and maintenance time prediction using virtual prototypes and humans in a virtual dynamic simulation of the maintenance process.Design/methodology/approach - An integrated platform for maintainability verification and maintenance time prediction is designed. Decomposition of maintenance tasks, corrective Measurement Time Method, and an impact matrix of maintenance therbligs and time are presented.Findings - The proposed methodology can efficiently conduct complex product maintainability verification and maintenance time prediction.Practical implications - Early and effective verification and prediction of the maintainability and maintenance time program can significantly improve the maintainability and availability of a complex product.Originality/value - A universally applicable method for product maintainability verification and maintenance time prediction is presented.

Application of the TRIZ creativity enhancement approach to the design of a passively adaptive compliant robotic gripper

Fri, 26 Jul 2013 00:00:00 +0100

Abstract

Purpose - Design of a new type of robotic gripper by TRIZ methodDesign/methodology/approach - TRIZ methodologyFindings - A new type of adaptive compliant robotic gripperOriginality/value - Fully compliant robotic gripper

3D Vision based Quality Inspection with Computational Intelligence

literatinetwork@emeraldinsight.com (Quan Yu, Kesheng Wang) — Fri, 26 Jul 2013 00:00:00 +0100

Abstract

Purpose - Product quality inspection is quite necessary in most manufacturing industries to ensure that low quality or unqualified products are not delivered to the consumer. Human inspection has many limitations such as high accuracy or speed, due to factors such as tiredness and boredom. Traditional 2D vision inspection also has limitations of product shape complexity or flexibility. Thus, automated 3D vision inspection is anticipated to meet the requirements of higher applicability.Design/methodology/approach - In many product quality inspection problems, geometrical parameters of the industrial parts are commonly used as the basis of quality inspection. Machine vision is widely applied to acquire such kind of parameters. Comparing to traditional 2D vision, 3D vision can acquire three dimensional coordinates of the object directly, so that the inspection can be accomplished which is difficult to do with 2D vision. As an active vision technique, Structure Light System (SLS) is applied to acquire the 3D coordinate information of inspected object in this paper. On the basis of point cloud and regression analysis, features relevant to quality are defined and extracted as the attributes for the product classification. Data mining techniques are applied to accomplish the classification in this paper, which include Decision tree, Artificial Neural Networks and Support Vector Machine.Findings - A new intelligent automated 3D vision quality inspection for assembly lines has been developed and it is able to be accomplished using Structure Light System (SLS) and Data Mining approaches such as Decision tree, Artificial Neutral Network and Support Vector Machine.Originality/value - The combination of Structure Light System (SLS) and Data Mining approaches makes the automated quality inspection available. The proposed system is easy to be implemented and flexible for types of products.

Demand Responsive Planning - Workload Control Implementation

Fri, 26 Jul 2013 00:00:00 +0100

Abstract

Purpose - Evolvable Production Systems enable fully reconfiguration capabilities on the shop floor through process oriented modularity and multi agent based distributed control. To be able to benefit architectural and operational characteristics of evolvable systems, there is a need of a new planning approach which links shop floor characteristics and planning operations.Design/methodology/approach - Evolvable Production System has a structured methodology in itself. Consistent to this, a reference planning architecture is developed aiming to achieve agility on planning activities. Besides a workload control method is proposed and implemented as a part of the planning architecture.Findings - First applications of evolvable systems has been implemented through European research projects. Shop floor working principles and architectural characteristics are consistent to facilitate more agility on planning activities which are framed at a planning reference architecture called Demand Responsive Planning. As an implementation case an agent based workload control method is proposed and implemented. The characteristics of EPS and proposed planning architecture enable to implement continuous and dynamic workload control of shop floor.Originality/value - This paper presents a new planning model compatible with evolvable production systems targeting to agility to demand on planning and control activities benefiting shop floor enhancements of a fully reconfigurable system which enables to relax constraints imposed from production systems to planning. In addition, a continuous and dynamic workload control method is proposed and implemented.

Design and Characterization of MEMS based Micrograsping System

Fri, 26 Jul 2013 00:00:00 +0100

Abstract

Purpose - This paper presents design and characterization of a micrograsping system which is capable of safely grasping micro-objects.Design/methodology/approach - The proposed micrograsping system consists of novel MEMS based microgripper integrated with capacitive contact sensor (fabricated in standard micromachining process SOI-MUMPs), sense electronics, a controller, high voltage actuation circuit and graphical user interface.Findings - Due to the improvement in the lateral comb-drive design, the actuator requires low actuation voltages in the range of 0-45 V. This requires a simple and low power actuation circuitry. Capacitive feedback control mechanism is used in the sensor to detect the contact between the jaws and micro-object while providing high values of the capacitance.Practical implications - The designed sense electronics can sense the capacitance ranging from 0-330 fF. Due to the availability of integrated contact sensor, objects ranging from 54 µm to 70 µm can be gripped safely with the applied maximum force of 220 µN at the tip of the gripper.Originality/value - The performance of the microgripper, controller algorithm and associated electronics were experimentally quantified through the gripping of 65 µm sized human hair.

Assembly Model and Design Thinking: A Study of Assembly Scheme Based on Gene Model

Fri, 26 Jul 2013 00:00:00 +0100

Abstract

Purpose - Existing models of product assembly scheme design often ignore the constraint relations among parts.Design/methodology/approach - In order to grasp the functions of each part and the constraint relations among them in product assembly system macroscopically, further design and variation of product assembly system should be made according to requirements. Through analyzing the similarity between biological organization system and product system and taking biology knowledge for reference, product assembly system was expressed as product function gene, product constraint gene, product function protein, product constraint protein and product cell and so on in this paper.Findings - The product gene model composed of product function gene groups and constraint genes was established and a modeling method based on it was proposed.Originality/value - The author applied this method to model the 5-DOF manipulator of complex diamond manufacturing special equipment with good results which proved the effectiveness of this modeling method.

Production Scheduling for injection molding manufacture using Petri Net Model

literatinetwork@emeraldinsight.com (Asawin Wongwiwat) — Fri, 26 Jul 2013 00:00:00 +0100

Abstract

Purpose - This paper proposes a new generic hybrid Petri Net (PN) Model combined with the Lowest Makespan Cut (LMC) for job shop scheduling problems in mold manufacturing to minimize the makespan of the mold part manufacture schedule.Design/methodology/approach - The LMC algorithm finds a solution close to the optimal solution. The searching of the LMC algorithm starts from the lowest estimated makespan (lowest makespan). Almost all of the Lowest Makespans (LM) are infeasible makespans. A Shifting Percentage (SP) is added to the LM to obtain the Shifting Makespan (SM). The SM is compared with the completion time computed from the reachability tree of the Petri Net (PN) model. If the completion time is greater than the SM, the corresponding branch is cut from the reachability graph, and the SM will be compared with another branch from the reachability tree. There are two scenarios. In the first scenario, there is no feasible solution resulting from the comparison of the completion time and the SM, because the SM is lower than all of the feasible solutions. Therefore, the SP is used to increase the SM. On the contrary, in the second scenario, there are feasible solution, the SP is used to reduce the SM. In the first scenario, a makespan that is lower than the optimal makespan is found. In the second scenario, a makespan that is greater than the optimal makespan is found. After getting close to bounds of the optimal makespan, the least makespan found in the bounds is the best solution.Findings - The integration of the Petri Net (PN) model and the LMC algorithm can help to improve the production efficiency. In a case study, the proposed algorithm is being compared with other heuristical methods which are practical examples of mold makespans based on the shortest and the longest processing times. The schedule or the sequence obtained by the proposed algorithm is 30 % less than the other methods.Research limitations/implications - This research will consider scheduling multiple mold. The mold design and the mold testing phase are not considered.Practical implications - The time to produce a mold is very important. Reducing the mold production time will provide more time for mold assembly and testing. The aim of LMC algorithm is minimize the makespan. The time to produce a mold is reduced by finding the best sequence of the jobs and machines. Originality/value - This paper proposes the new generic hybrid Petri Net model combined with LMC for job shop scheduling problem in the case of mold making shop to optimize the makespan of mold parts scheduling.

COGNITIVE AUTOMATION STRATEGY -FOR RECONFIGURABLE AND SUSTAINABLE ASSEMBLY SYSTEMS

literatinetwork@emeraldinsight.com (Åsa AB Fasth, Johan Stahre) — Fri, 26 Jul 2013 00:00:00 +0100

Abstract

Purpose - The paper aims to discuss the importance to consider both the physical and cognitive automation when aiming for a flexible or reconfigurable assembly system in order to handle the increased demand for mass customized production. Furthermore to maintain or improve the social sustainabilitin within the company. Design/methodology/approach - The methodologies used in this paper is both a theoretical review about task allocation and levels of automation. For the industriacl case studies a methodology called DYNAMO++ is used.Findings - The paper provides both theoretical and empirical insights about the importance of considering both the cognitive and physical automation when aiming for a reconfigurable assembly system.Research limitations/implications - The paper will only discuss the cognitive strategy from a social sustainability perspetctive and not from an economical or environmantel angle.Practical implications - The paper presents data from three industrial case studies, mostly in automotive industry. The result points towards a need for a more structured and quantitative method when choosing automation solutions and towards an increased use of cognitive automation solution. Originality/value - The paper demonstrate an advance in the state of the art in task allocation. The concept model and the DYNAMO++ method can be seen as a step closer towards quantitative measures of task allocation (i.e. changes in both physical and cognitive LoA) and dynamic changes over time.