Understanding a Rapidly Reconfigurable Robotic Workcell
Submitted to Journal of Japan Society of Precision Engineering
Realization of A Rapidly Reconfigurable Robotic Workcell
I-Ming Chen School of Mechanical and Production Engineering Nanyang Technological University Nanyang Ave, Singapore 639798 ABSTRACT This article describes the development of a component technology based robot workcell that can be rapidly configured to perform a specific manufacturing task. The workcell is conceived with standard and inter-operable components including actuator modules, rigid link connectors and tools that can be assembled into robots with arbitrary geometry and degrees of freedom. The reconfigurable "plug-and-play" robot modeling algorithms are developed based on the Local Product-Of-Exponentials formulation. These algorithms are the basis for the control and simulation of reconfigurable robots. The concept of robot configuration optimization is introduced to establish optimal and effective use of the rapidly reconfigurable robots. Control and communications of the workcell components are facilitated by a workcell-wide TCP/IP network and device level CAN-bus networks. An object-oriented simulation and visualization software for the reconfigurable robot is developed based on Windows NT. A prototype of the robot workcell configured to perform light machining task is constructed and demonstrated.
1. INTRODUCTION An automated manufacturing system usually consists of a collection of material processing and handling devices such as CNC machines, robots, part feeders, conveyors, and sensors. These devices are traditionally designed and commissioned with the intent that they will be operated with few significant changes so long as the specific product is being manufactured. Certain flexibility has been given to those devices through programmable controllers. However, it is time-consuming and not cost effective to reconfigure them for other products. In the rapidchanging and highly competitive global economy environment, such
Realization of A Rapidly Reconfigurable Robotic Workcell
I-Ming Chen School of Mechanical and Production Engineering Nanyang Technological University Nanyang Ave, Singapore 639798 ABSTRACT This article describes the development of a component technology based robot workcell that can be rapidly configured to perform a specific manufacturing task. The workcell is conceived with standard and inter-operable components including actuator modules, rigid link connectors and tools that can be assembled into robots with arbitrary geometry and degrees of freedom. The reconfigurable "plug-and-play" robot modeling algorithms are developed based on the Local Product-Of-Exponentials formulation. These algorithms are the basis for the control and simulation of reconfigurable robots. The concept of robot configuration optimization is introduced to establish optimal and effective use of the rapidly reconfigurable robots. Control and communications of the workcell components are facilitated by a workcell-wide TCP/IP network and device level CAN-bus networks. An object-oriented simulation and visualization software for the reconfigurable robot is developed based on Windows NT. A prototype of the robot workcell configured to perform light machining task is constructed and demonstrated.
1. INTRODUCTION An automated manufacturing system usually consists of a collection of material processing and handling devices such as CNC machines, robots, part feeders, conveyors, and sensors. These devices are traditionally designed and commissioned with the intent that they will be operated with few significant changes so long as the specific product is being manufactured. Certain flexibility has been given to those devices through programmable controllers. However, it is time-consuming and not cost effective to reconfigure them for other products. In the rapidchanging and highly competitive global economy environment, such