Optimizing Cycle Time of Industrial Robotic Tasks with Multiple Feasible Configurations at the Working Points

Industrial robot applications should be designed to allow the robot to provide the best performance for increasing throughput. In this regard, both trajectory and task order optimization are crucial, since they can heavily impact cycle time. Moreover, it is very common for a robotic application to be kinematically or functionally redundant so that multiple arm configurations may fulfill the same task at the working points. In this context, even if the working cycle is composed of a small number of points, the number of possible sequences can be very high, so that the robot programmer usually cannot evaluate them all to obtain the shortest possible cycle time. One of the most well-known problems used to define the optimal task order is the Travelling Salesman Problem (TSP), but in its original formulation, it does not allow to consider different robot configurations at the same working point. This paper aims at overcoming TSP limitations by adding some mathematical and conceptual constraints to the problem. With such improvements, TSP can be used successfully to optimize the cycle time of industrial robotic tasks where multiple configurations are allowed at the working points. Simulation and experimental results are presented to assess how cost (cycle time) and computational time are influenced by the proposed implementation.

Modular Robotic Design and Reconfiguring Path Planning

The modular robot is becoming a prevalent research object in robots because of its unique configuration advantages and performance characteristics. It is possible to form robot configurations with different functions by reconfiguring functional modules. This paper focuses on studying the modular robot’s configuration design and self-reconfiguration process and hopes to realize the industrial application of the modular self-reconfiguration robot to a certain extent. We design robotic configurations with different DOF based on the cellular module of the hexahedron and perform the kinematic analysis of the structure. An innovative design of a modular reconfiguration platform for conformational reorganization is presented, and the collaborative path planning between different modules in the reconfiguration platform is investigated. We propose an optimized ant colony algorithm for reconfiguration path planning and verify the superiority and rationality of this algorithm compared with the traditional ant colony algorithm for platform path planning through simulation experiments.

Parametric design applied to die cutting machine

In this paper, the particularities of applying parameterization in industrial machines corresponding to the manufacturing area are exposed and analyzed. For its development, the parameterized design of a die cutting machine is proposed as an object of study, which is formulated from the main elements considered of importance in the principle of operation, being necessary to carry out a prior investigation to analyze it and how the parameterization process influences. Parameterization is a quality of the components to adapt flexibly to the needs of the industry or sector, facilitating the redesign and manufacturing process, allowing the desired dimensional update or adjustment to be carried out only to the central component and the others are automatically adapted. Attending to the current needs and trends of the fourth industrial revolution, as well as establishing the benefits of this type of flexible design processes to expand their implementation to different industrial machines such as robot configurations.

Simultaneous task placement and sequence optimization in an inspection robotic cell

In this article, we improve the efficiency of a turbine blade inspection robotic workcell. The workcell consists of a stationary camera and a 6-axis serial robot that is holding a blade and presenting different zones of the blade to the camera for inspection. The problem at hand consists of a 6-DOF (degree of freedom) continuous optimization of the camera placement and a discrete combinatorial optimization of the sequence of inspection poses (images). For each image, all robot configurations (up to eight) are taken into consideration. A novel combined approach is introduced, called blind dynamic particle swarm optimization (BD-PSO), to simultaneously obtain the optimal design for both domains. The objective is to minimize the cycle time of the inspection process, while avoiding any collisions. Even though PSO is vastly used in engineering problems, the novelty of our combinatorial optimization method is in its ability to be used efficiently in traveling salesman problems where the distances between the cities are unknown and subject to change. This highly unpredictable environment is the case of the inspection cell where the cycle time between two images will change for different camera placements.

Micromouse 3D simulator with dynamics capability: a Unity environment approach

The micromouse competition has been gaining prominence in the robotic atmosphere, due to the challenging and multidisciplinary characteristics provided by the teams’ duels, being a gateway for those who intend to deepen their studies in autonomous robotics. In this context, this paper presents a realistic micromouse simulator developed with Unity software, a widely game engine with dynamics and 3D development platform used. The developed simulator has hardware-in-the-loop capabilities, aims to be simple to use, it can be customizable, and designed to be as similar as possible to the real robot configurations. In this way, the proposed simulator requires few modifications to port the microcontroller code to a real robot. Therefore, the framework presented in this work allows the user to simulate the development of new algorithm strategies dedicated to competition and also hardware updates. The simulation supports several mazes, from previous competitions and has the possibility to add different mazes elaborated by the user. Thus, the features and functionality of the simulator can serve to accelerate the project’s development of the beginning and advanced competitors, using real models to reduce the gap between the mouse robot behavior in the simulation and the reality. The developed simulation environment is available to the community.

A Visual Programming Approach for Co-designed Robots

SUMMARY This paper proposes an approach for the high-level programming of co-designed robots that reduces programming complexity. Particularly, the work presented focuses on the programming framework of an intelligent system, based on the IEEE Standard Ontologies for Robotics and Automation, which allows users the automatic design of robots and the automatic implementation of controllers in the Robot Operating System (ROS). In our approach, the co-designed robot functionalities are automatically translated into visual programming blocks allowing non-expert users an easy robot programming by means of a visual programming language. Several robot configurations and three case studies are provided as a proof of concept. The validation, in terms of usability, of the framework has been carried out with inexperienced users showing promising results.