Cyclic scheduling in small-scale robotic cells served by a multi-function robot
- Authors: Foumani, Mehdi , Ibrahim, Yousef , Gunawan, Indra
- Date: 2013
- Type: Text , Conference proceedings
- Relation: IECON 2013 - 39th Annual Conference of the IEEE Industrial Electronics Society, Nov. 2013, Vienna, Austria pp.4362-4367
- Full Text: false
- Reviewed:
- Description: The industrial robot is one of the popular devices used in fully automatic production lines as material handling tool. A consequential problem is finding a cyclic robot movement which gives the maximum cell output in mass production environments. The Robotic Cell Scheduling Problem (RCSP) is predominantly separated into two different problems: Single-Function Robotic Cell (SFRC) and Multi-Function Robotic Cell (MFRC) scheduling problem. These problems are layout-oriented and operation-oriented, respectively. Literature concerning with former case considered a robotic system served by a transporting robot performing a single task. This kind of transporting robot is usually called Single-Function Robot (SFR). For the latter case, the robotic system served by a Multi-Function Robot (MFR) which simultaneously perform an arbitrary task in addition to parts transportation task. Giving a real-life example of MFRs, the use of a class of grippers performing in-process control is significantly increased in industry. The grippers, install at the end of MFR arm, can perform quality control tasks (e.g. accurately measure diameters) while part is carried to next machine. Figure 1 shows an example of these grippers used for measuring the diameter of crankshaft [1]. The measuring heads are integrated into the automation by adding gages and crankshaft locating features to MFR using in these lines. Also, there is a special kind of MFR, namely SDA10, which is suitable for assembly and part transfer in production lines especially if fixturing is costly [2]. Thus, it is crucial to undertake a comprehensive research onto effect of MFRs on production rate.
Development of a spherical parallel manipulator as a haptic device for a tele-operation system: Application to robotic surgery
- Authors: Saafi, Hadi , Laribi, Med Amine , Zeghoul, Said , Ibrahim, Yousef
- Date: 2013
- Type: Text , Conference proceedings
- Relation: IECON 2013 - 39th Annual Conference of the IEEE Industrial Electronics Society, Nov. 2013, Vienna, Austria p. 4097-4102
- Full Text: false
- Reviewed:
- Description: In tele-operation applications, especially in surgery, haptic devices need to exhibit a high degree of rigidity and accuracy. This paper deals with the development of a spherical parallel manipulator (SPM) that enables the satisfaction of those characteristics. The parallel architecture enables the use of this kind of robot as master in a tele-operation system. Moreover, the SPM has a center of rotation that makes it a natural candidate and more adapted to minimally invasive surgery application. However, the parallel manipulator presents a poor behavior in singular configuration. In this paper we discuss the technique we used to overcome the singularity effects. We also present the methodology of using additional sensor to avoid kinematic structure problem without design changes. The investigation of the developed solution is detailed in this paper. Also, the experimental results of the newly developed haptic device are presented in this paper.