Robotic material handling is one of the most popular application in industrial robotics. Robots are used to handle heavy loads, and for palletizing and machine tending. Basic reasons for automatization and robotization are cost reduction, less hard labor for human workers, ensuring the efficiency and quality of production.
One of our customers has contacted us to make a proposal for development of robotic cell for tending of linear drying oven for hollow ceramic tubes, which as final product serving as a housing for high voltage fuses (VV).
Customers wish was automatic handling of tubes on the exit of linear drying oven. In time window of 12 seconds the handling system must be able to pick up the tube, drill the hole in the tube and place it in the area from where the human operator could easily and hazard free access the tube.
We deicided to use six axis Yaskawa Motoman robot arm for tube handling. For hole drilling we would use two drilling units and to safely transport the tubes outside the robot cell we decided to use carousel.
Attached on robot arm vacuum gripper picks the tube from the exit position of linear drying oven and transports it to the drilling unit. The drilling unit then drills a hole into the tube. In the next step the robot picks the tube from the drilling unit and carries it to carousel. Carousel then with low speed transports the tube outside the cell. After few problems with not being able to finish the cycle in presribed time window at the beggining, now the robotic cell serves it's purpose.
The thesis describes hardware and software which has been used to finish the project. It describes the connections between used peripheral, time charts and basic principal of robotic cell.
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