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Traditional automotive companies’ manual assembly line operation with higher labor intensity, lower efficiency, and product quality is difficult to ensure and other shortcomings have been unable to meet the growing demand for industry development and quality assurance. This project with the IRB- 1410 model robot as the core robot, combined with an industrial vision system and gluing system, completed a vehicle windshield assembly workstation based on ABB industrial robots, to improve the degree of automation while greatly improving the efficiency and degree of operational safety, and can both improve the visibility of companies while establishing a good image of the enterprise.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyse teleoperation of an ABB industrial robot with an ABB IRC5 controller. A method to improve motion smoothness and decrease latency using the existing ABB IRC5 robot controller without access to any low-level interface is proposed. Design/methodology/approach – The proposed control algorithm includes a high-level proportional-integral-derivative controller (PID) controller used to dynamically generate reference velocities for different travel ranges of the tool centre point (TCP) of the robot. Communication with the ABB IRC5 controller was performed utilising the ABB PC software development kit. The multitasking feature of the IRC5 controller was used to enhance the communication frequency between the controller and the remote application. Trajectory tracking experiments of a pre-defined three-dimensional trajectory were carried out and the benefits of the proposed algorithm were demonstrated. The robot was intentionally installed on a wobbly table and its vibrations were recorded using a six-degrees-of-freedom force/torque sensor fitted to the tool mounting interface of the robot. The robot vibrations were used as a measure of the smoothness of the tracking movements. Findings – A communication rate of up to 250 Hz between the computer and the controller was established using C# .Net. Experimental results demonstrating the robot TCP, tracking errors and robot vibrations for different control approaches were provided and analysed. It was demonstrated that the proposed approach results in the smoothest motion with tracking errors of < 0.2 mm. Research limitations/implications – The proposed approach may be employed to produce smooth motion for a remotely operated ABB industrial robot with the existing ABB IRC5 controller. However, to achieve high-bandwidth path following, the inherent latency of the controller must be overcome, for example by utilising a low-level interface. It is particularly useful for applications including a large number of short manipulation segments, which is typical in teleoperation applications. Social implications – Using the proposed technique, off-the-shelf industrial robots can be used for research and industrial applications where remote control is required. Originality/value – Although low-level control interface for industrial robots seems to be the ideal long-term solution for teleoperation applications, the proposed remote control technique allows out-of-the-box ABB industrial robots with IRC5 controllers to achieve high efficiency and manipulation smoothness without requirements of any low-level programming interface. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Robot-CT is drawing great attention for its potential to support highly flexible scan trajectories and various scan modes with a single system. However, the quality of CT reconstruction largely depends on accurate knowledge of the scan geometry, i.e. position and orientation of the source and the detector. This imposes major challenges on current serial industrial robots. In order to realistically assess the impact of various robot characteristics on the Robot-CT reconstruction quality and to facilitate the development of a dedicated calibration method, this paper elaborates on a set of simulations based on the performance evaluation of an ABB industrial robot. Simulation results reveal that: (a) synchronous error motions of the twin robots can partially compensate for the robot errors; (b) offline calibration is a possible way to implement high accuracy Robot-CT due to the excellent repeatability of current industrial robots; (c) both robot positioning and orientation errors need to be compensated for to get a high quality reconstruction; (d) compensating for only the relative error cannot improve the final reconstruction quality: absolute positioning and orientation errors need to be measured and compensated for. External sensors or radiograph based absolute geometry calibration are needed to improve the reconstruction quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

SUMMARY: Industrial applications that involve working on and moving a heavy load or that constrain the operator to work in uncomfortable positions can take advantage of the assistance of a robotic assistant. In this paper, we propose an architecture for an ergonomic human–robot co-manipulation of objects of various shapes and weight. The object is carried by the robot and, thanks to an ergonomic planner, is positioned in the most comfortable way for the user. Furthermore, thanks to an admittance control with payload compensation, the user can easily adjust the position of the object for working on different parts of it. The proposed architecture is experimentally validated in a robotic cell including an ABB industrial robot. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we focus on developing an intelligent perception system that can generate the task program for the robot to realize programming by demonstration (PBD) in industrial assembly tasks. The core problem of the system is to understand the semantics of the parts and skills in the visually observed demonstration. We present a probabilistic framework to state this problem as the joint inference of actions in the skill, as well as the parts poses and relations. To estimate the former, a multimodal information fusion action recognition algorithm is developed that makes use of the prior knowledge in the assembly task, so that real-time performance is achieved. While for the latter, an expectation maximization based algorithm is designed to generate solutions meeting the high accuracy required by the assembly. The perception system is validated on comprehensive simulation data and the real assembly tasks by committing the generated program to an ABB industrial robot. The satisfactory results indicate the effectiveness and feasibility of the system, finally verifying our hypothesis that PBD can be applied in assembly tasks to achieve the “teacher” and “student” scenario with the proposed perception system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wire-arc additive manufacturing (WAAM) is widely applied in the aerospace, automotive, defense, and other industries. As such, the study of the formation and evolution mechanism of grains to achieve precise control over the performance of additive parts is important. In this study, AA2024 high-strength Al alloy wire was used to produce WAAM specimens under different heat inputs by varying different parameters. Subsequently, their microstructure, phases, and tensile properties were analyzed. The results indicated that the predominant crystal comprised cellular crystals, columnar crystals and dendritic crystals. At a heat input of 5500–6200 kJ m−1, the internal morphology of the specimen, characterized by the significant presence of fine cellular crystals, was predominantly favorable. As the heat input increased, α (Al) and θ (CuAl2) phases were increasingly identified within the specimens, the grid-like distribution of the θ phase along the crystal boundaries became clearer, and the θ′ phase precipitation decreased. Solution treatment and aging of the specimen produced using the optimal WAAM parameters resulted in an ultimate tensile strength (UTS) of 398 MPa, yield strength (YS) of 284 MPa, and elongation of 11.3%. The results should serve as a basis for selecting suitable WAAM process parameters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Insufficient training data often leads to overfitting, posing a significant challenge in diagnosing faults in mechanical devices, particularly rotating machinery. To address this issue, this paper introduces a novel approach employing a graph neural network (GNN) with one-shot learning for fault diagnosis in rotating machinery. Firstly, the Short-Time Fourier Transform (STFT) is utilized for data preprocessing to convert the one-dimensional data into two-dimensional pictures. Subsequently, Feature extraction a convolutional neural network (CNN) is utilized to perform feature extraction. By introducing the adjacency matrix to explore the spatial information within data, a graph neural network (GNN) method is proposed to achieve the fault classification of rotating machinery with small sample. The method utilizes GNN to process structural information between, transferring the distance metric from Euclidean space to non-Euclidean space. Classification accuracy is thereby improved based on information processing in non-Euclidean space.Experiments were implemented on two datasets to verify the proposed method, including an open dataset of the rolling bearing and an experimental rig of the rotate vector (RV) reducer in an industrial robot. Siamese Net, Matching Net, and sparse auto-encoder with random forest (SAE + RF) wereemployed as the comparisons to further prove the effectiveness of the proposed method. Results indicate that the proposed method outperforms all the comparative methods in both rotating machineries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Featured Application: Following straightforward guidelines, feedforward neural networks enable to design an accurate model-free control structure for the fast trajectory tracking of robotic arms. This paper designs a minimal neural network (NN)-based model-free control structure for the fast, accurate trajectory tracking of robotic arms, crucial for large movements, velocities, and accelerations. Trajectory tracking requires an accurate dynamic model or aggressive feedback. However, such models are hard to obtain due to nonlinearities and uncertainties, especially in low-cost, 3D-printed robotic arms. A recently proposed model-free architecture has used an NN for the dynamic compensation of a proportional derivative controller, but the minimal requirements and optimal conditions remain unclear, leading to overly complex architectures. This study aims to identify these requirements and design a minimal NN-based model-free control structure for trajectory tracking. Two architectures are compared, one NN per joint (INN) and one global NN (GNN), each tested on two serial robotic arms in simulations and real scenarios. The results show that the architecture reduces tracking errors (RMSE < 2°). The INN is accurate for decoupled joint dynamics and requires fewer training data than the GNN. A table summarizes the design process. Future works will apply this control structure to low-cost robotic arms and micro-movements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, clear aligner can enhance individual appearance with dental defects, so it used more and more widely. However, in manufacturing process, there are still some problems, such as low degree of automation and high equipment cost. The problem of coordinate system mismatch between gingival curve point cloud and dental CAD model is faced to. The PCA-ICP registration algorithm is proposed, which includes coarse match algorithm and improve-ICP registration algorithm. The principal component analysis (PCA) based method can roughly find the posture relationship between the two point clouds. Using z-level dynamic hierarchical, the ICP registration can accurately find the posture between these two clouds. The final registration maximum distance error is 0.03 mm, which is smaller than robot machining error. Secondly, the clear aligner machining process is conducted to verify the registration effectiveness. Before machining, the path is generated based on the well registered gingival curve. After full registration, the tool path is calculated by establishing a local coordinate system between the workpiece and the tool to avoid interference. This path is calculated and generated as an executable program for ABB industrial robots. Finally, the robot was used for flexible cutting of clear aligners and was able to extract products, ensuring the effectiveness of the proposed research. This method can effectively solve the limitations of traditional milling path planning under such complex conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The technology used for the 3D printing of buildings from concrete is currently a very relevant and developing topic and appears to be especially advantageous in terms of sustainable production. An important aspect of the sustainability assessment is the energy efficiency of the printing robots. Printing robots consume a significant amount of energy when printing. It is important to analyse this energy thoroughly and to be able to predict it in order to optimise the movement and control of printing robots to reduce energy consumption. In that paper, we analyse in detail the energy consumption of printing robots, which has not yet been thoroughly investigated in the context of 3D printing building applications. We present a methodology to develop an energy consumption model for a printing robot, specifically developed and optimized for this technology. Our methodology incorporates an innovative approach to determine reduced-efficiency maps, allowing for the inclusion of difficult-to-measure drive efficiency parameters in the model. This results in a comprehensive model of the energy consumption of the printing robot, reflecting its operating characteristics in a real-world environment. An open control system of the printing robot is used for the measurement of energy quantities, and specially developed software tools are introduced. We also present the first direct comparison of the energy consumption of different printing robots when following a uniform printing trajectory. The comparison is made based on the presented methodology to obtain and compare actual energy data from workplaces with printing robots. The methodology combines measured data with energy simulations from ABB RobotStudio, enabling energy comparisons between industrially articulated robots and real printing robots, including the ABB IRB4600, the gantry printing robot, and the printing robot. The experiments clearly demonstrate that the kinematic structure of printing robots significantly affects their energy consumption in 3D printing concrete. Based on the conducted methodologies and analyses, we identify key aspects of energy consumption of printing robots in 3D Construction Printing or 3D Concrete Printing (3DCP) technology. In doing so, we bring a new perspective and provide a basis for further research and development in this previously understudied area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, an Al2O3-40TiO2 coating was deposited on 20MnNiMo steel via atmospheric plasma spraying. The corrosion behavior of the coating was investigated in both artificial seawater and a simulated environment with hydrogen sulfide and high pressure. Additionally, ion dissolution experiments were conducted to evaluate the coating's bio-friendliness. In artificial seawater, the corrosion rate (based on the corrosion current) of the Al2O3-40TiO2 coating initially decreased before increasing. It was speculated that the blocking of corrosion products in the defect channels was helpful in delaying the progress of corrosion in the early stage. The coating had a corrosion current on the order of 10−6 A/cm2 in artificial seawater, suggesting good protection in conventional seawater environments. In the simulated environment, the corrosion rate (based on the weight loss) of the Al2O3-40TiO2 coating showed a continuously declining trend. It was deduced that, unlike corrosion products in artificial seawater, the corrosion products in the simulated environment (e.g., metal sulfide) might be more chemically stable, leading to a longer blocking effect. Therefore, a minimal corrosion rate of 0.0030 mm/a was obtained after the coating was immersed for 30 days. The amount of dissolved coated elements was negligible and there were only small amounts of dissolved non-coated elements such as Ni and Mo. The developed coating can be considered to be highly biofriendly if the non-coated area of the specimen is well sealed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nowadays, there is a worldwide demand to create new, simpler, and more intuitive methods for the manual programming of industrial robots. Gestures can allow the operator to interact with the robot more simply and naturally, as gestures are used in everyday life. The authors have developed and tested a gesture-based robot programming approach for part-handling applications. Compared to classic manual programming methods using jogging and lead-through, the gesture control method reduced wasted time by up to 70% and reduced the probability of operator error. In addition, the proposed method compares favorably with similar works in that the proposed approach allows one to write programs in the native programming language of the robot's controller and allows the operator to control the gripper of an industrial robot. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Industrial robot is widely used in small and medium workshops, however, the robot cooperating with other devices are important aspect for achieving the full autonomous system. This paper reports on the development of line follower mobile robot correlated with ABB industrial robot manipulator. The line follower mobile robot is a prototype model design and fabricated for material handling purpose. Thus, hardware components as well as software programming are concurrently developed with each other. Meanwhile, a specific micro-controller for the line follower robot associated with the ABB main controller is developed. A sensory system also attached for completing the operational loop. Experimental operation shows fully successful for the developed system. Hence, ABB industrial robot could incorporates further in low cost fully automation system. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Our goal was to developed, implementated and practical experimentated an XYZ position control system for a ABB industrial robot. The electrical motors used are induction squirrel cage motors. The position adjustment system is based on a vectorial control, sensor-less, of the mechanical speed of the induction motor. The speed estimation and components of the rotor flux is made using the Luenberger Extended Estimator. The design of the adaptation component is based on V.M. Popov hypersensitivity. In the final the position adjustment of the ABB robot is analyzed using Matlab - Simulink. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents a new and effective multi-sensor-based control strategy for high-accuracy/precision and high-efficiency automatic robot positioning in the field of industrial robot calibration. The strategy combines both coarsely visual servo and fine position-sensitive detector (PSD) servo control methods. In a large field of view, an image-based visual servo control system is employed to roughly guide the laser spot, which is from a single laser pointer attached to the end-effector of a robot to project to the segmented PSDs with a resolution of better than 0.1 µm. Once the laser spot is projected onto the active area of the PSD surface, the control will automatically be switched to the PSD feedback and servoing for fine positioning. An image/PSD-based servoing system has been presented. Based on the system, the controller design and switch logic of the hybrid servoing are given. The experimental results conducted on an ABB industrial robot IRB1600 verified the effectiveness of the developed visual/PSD hybrid servo controllers, as well as demonstrated that the high accuracy of 30 µm of robot positioning can be approached. The development of the hybrid control method and system has played a major role in achieving high-performance automatic robot calibration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents our recently developed position-sensitive detector (PSD) guided servoing system for precise localization of industrial robots. The system is portable and affordable, and can position robot precisely so as to benefit further research on the calibration applications of industrial robots. To achieve highly precise position feedback, we have employed a high performance lateral-effect PSD with a resolution of 0.5 µ m. Based on the system kinematics and dynamics, a PSD guided servo (PSDGS) control method is then developed and simplified to be a planar motion control approach in which an on-line estimation of the transformation matrix between the PSD object and the robot base is applied. The experiments have been implemented on an ABB industrial robot IRB1600. The achieved results demonstrate that the mean localization precision of the industrial robot using the developed PSDGS method is totally better than 20 µ m. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the study, the functional safety of the hydraulic drive control system of a tracked undercarriage used as a mobile platform for a robotic bricklaying system (RBS) was evaluated. Hazards and risks caused by the hydraulic drive control system of the rubber track undercarriage were identified. The schematic diagram and main components of the conventional hydraulic drive control system of a tracked undercarriage are presented. The functions and parameters of the components of the hydraulic power and control system are discussed. In a conventional hydraulic drive, the safety function is fulfilled by failsafe brakes built into the hydraulic motors. To ensure that the RBS works safely on the construction site, it was necessary to introduce an advanced safe control system for the hydraulic drive of the tracked undercarriage. An advanced safe control system for the hydraulic drive of the tracked undercarriage includes hydraulic control valves with safety functions, a category 3 safe two-channel control architecture, and a safety microcontroller. SISTEMA software tools were utilized to determine safety functions and calculate their specifications. Based on the specifications of the safety function associated with the category of safety control architecture, the achievable performance level of the hydraulic drive control system for the tracked chassis was determined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, the need to produce from soft materials or components in extra-large sizes has appeared, requiring special solutions that are affordable using industrial robots. Industrial robots are suitable for such tasks due to their flexibility, accuracy, and consistency in machining operations. However, robot implementation faces some limitations, such as a huge variety of materials and tools, low adaptability to environmental changes, flexibility issues, a complicated tool path preparation process, and challenges in quality control. Industrial robotics applications include cutting, milling, drilling, and grinding procedures on various materials, including metal, plastics, and wood. Advanced robotics technologies involve the latest advances in robotics, including integrating sophisticated control systems, sensors, data fusion techniques, and machine learning algorithms. These innovations enable robots to adapt better and interact with their environment, ultimately increasing their accuracy. The main focus of this study is to cover the most common industrial robotic machining processes and to identify how specific advanced technologies can improve their performance. In most of the studied literature, the primary research objective across all operations is to enhance the stiffness of the robotic arm's structure. Some publications propose approaches for planning the robot's posture or tool orientation. In contrast, others focus on optimizing machining parameters through the utilization of advanced control and computation, including machine learning methods with the integration of collected sensor data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Developing at an incredible pace, high technologies occupy almost all areas of human activity. Today, one of the most striking examples of high technology is undoubtedly systems classified as artificial intelligence (AI). AI and robots are widely used in manufacturing, heavy industry, agriculture, and many other industries, as well as in the arts. The development of artificial intelligence is of interest to many philosophers, sociologists and other scientists and raises many questions. A. Turing, S. McCarthy, A. Barr, M. A. Boden, M. Kokkelberg, A. Elgammal, S. Awdry and other scientists have conducted detailed studies of artificial intelligence systems, philosophical aspects, and creativity. However, despite numerous scientific studies, the questions raised are still relevant. Do Robotic Artworks Prove the Creative Power of Artificial Intelligence? Can AI Be Creative in General? Most of these questions have different answers and lead to conflicting opinions. The article analyzes the creative potential of various modern AI systems and qualitatively assesses the risk of their uncontrolled use in creative areas of human activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Six-axis industrial robots are widely used, mainly because of their versatility. However, they have one drawback: they are not as accurate as conventional machine tools. There are currently a number of approaches to increase the accuracy of these robots. This paper reports on the online correction of an ABB IRB 120 industrial robot using a novel photogrammetric measurement device, the Multi Aperture Positioning System (MAPS). As described by Luhmann, multi-camera solutions were previously required for the online measurement of the six degrees of freedom (6DOF = position and orientation in 3D space) of the robot TCP. MAPS offers the advantages of a single-camera system and at the same time the features and accuracy of a multi-camera system. To increase the accuracy of the robot, a correction algorithm is developed. It uses the measured values from MAPS to calculate the deviation of the robot Tool Center Point (TCP) position from the planned position and corrects it online if necessary. In this paper, three experiments are presented and their results discussed. Two to determine the position and trajectory accuracy of the robot and one to determine its z- stability on a trajectory in the xy plane. In each of these experiments, the robot end effector is tracked with the MAPS measurement device. After the actual state of the robot was recorded, all experiments were performed again, this time with the online correction. In all experiments, a significant increase in the accuracy of the robot can be observed. For example, the mean absolute error (MAE) of the position accuracy improved by a factor of 7 from 0.0207 to 0.0029 mm and the path accuracy (MAE) from 0.1140 to 0.0151 mm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Object detection for a pick-and-place system has been widely acknowledged as a significant research area in the field of computer vision. The integration of AI and machine vision with pick-and-place operations should be made affordable for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) so they can leverage this technology. Therefore, the aim of this study is to develop a smart and lean pick-and-place solution for custom workpieces, which requires minimal computational resources. In this study, we evaluate the effectiveness of illumination and batch size to improve the Average Precision (AP) and detection score of an EfficientDet-Lite model. The addition of 8% optimized bright Alpha3 images results in an increase of 7.5% in AP and a 6.3% increase in F1-score as compared to the control dataset. Using a training batch size of 4, the AP is significantly improved to 66.8% as compared to a batch size of 16 at 57.4%. The detection scores are improved to 80% with a low variance of 1.65 using a uniform 135-angle lamp and 0 illumination level. The pick-and-place solution is validated using Single-Shot Detector (SSD) MobileNet V2 Feature Pyramid Network (FPN) Lite. Our experimental results clearly show that the proposed method has an increase of 5.19% in AP compared to SSD MobileNet V2 FPNLite. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Robotics is a crucial technology of Industry 4.0 that offers a diverse array of applications in the industrial sector. However, the quality of a robot's manipulator is contingent on its stability, which is a function of the manipulator's parameters. In previous studies, stability has been evaluated based on a small number of manipulator parameters; as a result, there is not much information about the integration/optimal arrangement/combination of manipulator parameters toward stability. Through Lagrangian mechanics and the consideration of multiple parameters, a mathematical model of a modern manipulator is developed in this study. In this mathematical model, motor acceleration, moment of inertia, and deflection are considered in order to assess the level of stability of the ABB Robot manipulator of six degrees of freedom. A novel mathematical approach to stability is developed in which stability is correlated with motor acceleration, moment of inertia, and deflection. In addition to this, fuzzy logic inference principles are employed to determine the status of stability. The numerical data of different manipulator parameters are verified using mathematical approaches. Results indicated that as motor acceleration increases, stability increases, while stability decreases as moment of inertia and deflection increase. It is anticipated that the implementation of these findings will increase industrial output. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This study aims to enable robotic friction stir welding (FSW) in practice. The use of robots has hitherto been limited, because of the large contact forces necessary for FSW. These forces are detrimental for the position accuracy of the robot. In this context, it is not sufficient to rely on the robot's internal sensors for positioning. This paper describes and evaluates a new method for overcoming this issue. Design/methodology/approach: A closed-loop robot control system for seam-tracking control and force control, running and recording data in real-time operation, was developed. The complete system was experimentally verified. External position measurements were obtained from a laser seam tracker and deviations from the seam were compensated for, using feedback of the measurements to a position controller. Findings: The proposed system was shown to be working well in overcoming position error. The system is flexible and reconfigurable for batch and short production runs. The welds were free of defects and had beneficial mechanical properties. Research limitations/implications: In the experiments, the laser seam tracker was used both for control feedback and for performance evaluation. For evaluation, it would be better to use yet another external sensor for position measurements, providing ground truth. Practical implications: These results imply that robotic FSW is practically realizable, with the accuracy requirements fulfilled. Originality/value: The method proposed in this research yields very accurate seam tracking as compared to previous research. This accuracy, in turn, is crucial for the quality of the resulting material. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]