Session: 03-13-03: Manufacturing: General III

Paper Number: 168139

Development of a Modular Automation Cell for Vision-Guided Pick and Place of Threaded Payloads in an Existing Manufacturing Line 

This project involved creating an automation cell to perform pick and place operations of a product in an existing manufacturing line using a vision guided robot. In the current system, a conveyor belt moves products to a pick position where a factory worker uses a gantry system to transfer them individually to a loading cart with a 2 x 6 array of product nests. To improve manufacturing efficiency, the factory aims to replace manual labor with an automated system. The main objective is to create an eighth-scale model solution that can be scaled into the existing assembly line. To automate this process, a FANUC LR Mate 200iD 6 degree of freedom robot is used to perform the operation. The products are 7 kg threaded objects that are axially symmetric and presented so that the threaded interface is facing upward as it travels along the conveyor.

Localization is done using a RealSense D455 camera and a circle-identification and tracking algorithm to account for variation in the position of the product along the conveyor during the pickup phase. A Schunk PZN-Plus 61-1-IS universal centric gripper with custom threaded finger inserts interfaces with the product and feedback on actuation allows for debounce before lifting begins. The cart interfaces with a docking station that uses magnetic locking to hold the cart in a fixed position during operation. The product is placed in the cart using known coordinates and a second camera to verify if a nest is occupied. The control architecture uses multiple controllers to distribute compute resources throughout the system for the main, camera, robot, and interfacing controller. A control box is designed to handle power and signal distribution through a series of contacts, circuit breakers, and terminals for ease of maintenance and customization.

The chassis houses the robot arm, conveyor interface, control box, transformer, compressor, and cart docking station. This chassis also incorporates a full enclosure with light curtains and emergency stop features to isolate personnel from the workspace during operation. Menus for basic operation, calibration, and maintenance manuals are accessible to operators though a touchscreen Human Machine Interface.

Full system testing verifies the overall effectiveness to include the total success rate of the pick and place operation and the time for the manufacturing iteration. Success is measured by the ability to accurately perform the pick and place operation at speeds comparable to that of a factory technician while maintaining safety requirements. Future work includes further development of the system state machine to account for several types of fault recovery and environmental disturbance, refined speed and reliability of the round identification process, and further development of the path planning procedure to reduce power consumption while maintaining speed. 

Presenting Author: Daniel Doscher United States Military Academy

Presenting Author Biography: Daniel Doscher received his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering and M.S. in Aeronautical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Civil and Mechanical Engineering at the United States Military Academy at West Point and works as a Servo Motion Control Engineer in the satellite communications industry. He has conducted research in orbit determination, target tracking, model predictive control, dynamic systems, and automation.

Authors:

Tre Dessalines United States Military Academy
Ryan Henry United States Military Academy
William Hoffman United States Military Academy
Alexander Ma United States Military Academy
Trevor Manning United States Military Academy
Aidan Miller United States Military Academy
Peter Mura United States Military Academy
Brendan Old United States Military Academy
Daniel Doscher United States Military Academy
Jeremy Cole United States Military Academy