Industrial robot

This article is about manufacturing robots. For mining robots, see Automated mining.
Articulated industrial robot operating in a foundry.

An industrial robot is a robot system used for manufacturing. Industrial robots are automated, programmable and capable of movement on two or more axes.[1]

Typical applications of robots include welding, painting, assembly, pick and place for printed circuit boards, packaging and labeling, palletizing, product inspection, and testing; all accomplished with high endurance, speed, and precision. They can help in material handling and provide interfaces.

Types and features

A set of six-axis robots used for welding.
Factory Automation with industrial robots for palletizing food products like bread and toast at a bakery in Germany

The most commonly used robot configurations are articulated robots, SCARA robots, delta robots and cartesian coordinate robots, (gantry robots or x-y-z robots). In the context of general robotics, most types of robots would fall into the category of robotic arms (inherent in the use of the word manipulator in ISO standard 1738). Robots exhibit varying degrees of autonomy:

History of industrial robotics

The earliest known industrial robot, conforming to the ISO definition was completed by "Bill" Griffith P. Taylor in 1937 and published in Meccano Magazine, March 1938.[3][4] The crane-like device was built almost entirely using Meccano parts, and powered by a single electric motor. Five axes of movement were possible, including grab and grab rotation. Automation was achieved using punched paper tape to energise solenoids, which would facilitate the movement of the crane's control levers. The robot could stack wooden blocks in pre-programmed patterns. The number of motor revolutions required for each desired movement was first plotted on graph paper. This information was then transferred to the paper tape, which was also driven by the robot's single motor. Chris Shute built a complete replica of the robot in 1997.

George Devol, c. 1982

George Devol applied for the first robotics patents in 1954 (granted in 1961). The first company to produce a robot was Unimation, founded by Devol and Joseph F. Engelberger in 1956. Unimation robots were also called programmable transfer machines since their main use at first was to transfer objects from one point to another, less than a dozen feet or so apart. They used hydraulic actuators and were programmed in joint coordinates, i.e. the angles of the various joints were stored during a teaching phase and replayed in operation. They were accurate to within 1/10,000 of an inch (note: although accuracy is not an appropriate measure for robots, usually evaluated in terms of repeatability - see later). Unimation later licensed their technology to Kawasaki Heavy Industries and GKN, manufacturing Unimates in Japan and England respectively. For some time Unimation's only competitor was Cincinnati Milacron Inc. of Ohio. This changed radically in the late 1970s when several big Japanese conglomerates began producing similar industrial robots.

In 1969 Victor Scheinman at Stanford University invented the Stanford arm, an all-electric, 6-axis articulated robot designed to permit an arm solution. This allowed it accurately to follow arbitrary paths in space and widened the potential use of the robot to more sophisticated applications such as assembly and welding. Scheinman then designed a second arm for the MIT AI Lab, called the "MIT arm." Scheinman, after receiving a fellowship from Unimation to develop his designs, sold those designs to Unimation who further developed them with support from General Motors and later marketed it as the Programmable Universal Machine for Assembly (PUMA).

Industrial robotics took off quite quickly in Europe, with both ABB Robotics and KUKA Robotics bringing robots to the market in 1973. ABB Robotics (formerly ASEA) introduced IRB 6, among the world's first commercially available all electric micro-processor controlled robot. The first two IRB 6 robots were sold to Magnusson in Sweden for grinding and polishing pipe bends and were installed in production in January 1974. Also in 1973 KUKA Robotics built its first robot, known as FAMULUS,[5][6] also one of the first articulated robots to have six electromechanically driven axes.

Interest in robotics increased in the late 1970s and many US companies entered the field, including large firms like General Electric, and General Motors (which formed joint venture FANUC Robotics with FANUC LTD of Japan). U.S. startup companies included Automatix and Adept Technology, Inc. At the height of the robot boom in 1984, Unimation was acquired by Westinghouse Electric Corporation for 107 million U.S. dollars. Westinghouse sold Unimation to Stäubli Faverges SCA of France in 1988, which is still making articulated robots for general industrial and cleanroom applications and even bought the robotic division of Bosch in late 2004.

Only a few non-Japanese companies ultimately managed to survive in this market, the major ones being: Adept Technology, Stäubli-Unimation, the Swedish-Swiss company ABB Asea Brown Boveri, the German company KUKA Robotics and the Italian company Comau.

Technical description

Defining parameters

Accuracy and repeatability are different measures. Repeatability is usually the most important criterion for a robot and is similar to the concept of 'precision' in measurement—see accuracy and precision. ISO 9283 [7] sets out a method whereby both accuracy and repeatability can be measured. Typically a robot is sent to a taught position a number of times and the error is measured at each return to the position after visiting 4 other positions. Repeatability is then quantified using the standard deviation of those samples in all three dimensions. A typical robot can, of course make a positional error exceeding that and that could be a problem for the process. Moreover, the repeatability is different in different parts of the working envelope and also changes with speed and payload. ISO 9283 specifies that accuracy and repeatability should be measured at maximum speed and at maximum payload. But this results in pessimistic values whereas the robot could be much more accurate and repeatable at light loads and speeds. Repeatability in an industrial process is also subject to the accuracy of the end effector, for example a gripper, and even to the design of the 'fingers' that match the gripper to the object being grasped. For example, if a robot picks a screw by its head, the screw could be at a random angle. A subsequent attempt to insert the screw into a hole could easily fail. These and similar scenarios can be improved with 'lead-ins' e.g. by making the entrance to the hole tapered.

Robot programming and interfaces

Offline programming by ROBCAD
A typical well-used teach pendant with optional mouse

The setup or programming of motions and sequences for an industrial robot is typically taught by linking the robot controller to a laptop, desktop computer or (internal or Internet) network.

A robot and a collection of machines or peripherals is referred to as a workcell, or cell. A typical cell might contain a parts feeder, a molding machine and a robot. The various machines are 'integrated' and controlled by a single computer or PLC. How the robot interacts with other machines in the cell must be programmed, both with regard to their positions in the cell and synchronizing with them.

Software: The computer is installed with corresponding interface software. The use of a computer greatly simplifies the programming process. Specialized robot software is run either in the robot controller or in the computer or both depending on the system design.

There are two basic entities that need to be taught (or programmed): positional data and procedure. For example, in a task to move a screw from a feeder to a hole the positions of the feeder and the hole must first be taught or programmed. Secondly the procedure to get the screw from the feeder to the hole must be programmed along with any I/O involved, for example a signal to indicate when the screw is in the feeder ready to be picked up. The purpose of the robot software is to facilitate both these programming tasks.

Teaching the robot positions may be achieved a number of ways:

Positional commands The robot can be directed to the required position using a GUI or text based commands in which the required X-Y-Z position may be specified and edited.

Teach pendant: Robot positions can be taught via a teach pendant. This is a handheld control and programming unit. The common features of such units are the ability to manually send the robot to a desired position, or "inch" or "jog" to adjust a position. They also have a means to change the speed since a low speed is usually required for careful positioning, or while test-running through a new or modified routine. A large emergency stop button is usually included as well. Typically once the robot has been programmed there is no more use for the teach pendant.

Lead-by-the-nose: this is a technique offered by many robot manufacturers. In this method, one user holds the robot's manipulator, while another person enters a command which de-energizes the robot causing it to go into limp. The user then moves the robot by hand to the required positions and/or along a required path while the software logs these positions into memory. The program can later run the robot to these positions or along the taught path. This technique is popular for tasks such as paint spraying.

Offline programming is where the entire cell, the robot and all the machines or instruments in the workspace are mapped graphically. The robot can then be moved on screen and the process simulated. A robotics simulator is used to create embedded applications for a robot, without depending on the physical operation of the robot arm and end effector. The advantages of robotics simulation is that it saves time in the design of robotics applications. It can also increase the level of safety associated with robotic equipment since various "what if" scenarios can be tried and tested before the system is activated.[8] Robot simulation software provides a platform to teach, test, run, and debug programs that have been written in a variety of programming languages.

RoboLogix Robotics Simulator.

Robot simulation tools allow for robotics programs to be conveniently written and debugged off-line with the final version of the program tested on an actual robot. The ability to preview the behavior of a robotic system in a virtual world allows for a variety of mechanisms, devices, configurations and controllers to be tried and tested before being applied to a "real world" system. Robotics simulators have the ability to provide real-time computing of the simulated motion of an industrial robot using both geometric modeling and kinematics modeling.[9]

Others In addition, machine operators often use user interface devices, typically touchscreen units, which serve as the operator control panel. The operator can switch from program to program, make adjustments within a program and also operate a host of peripheral devices that may be integrated within the same robotic system. These include end effectors, feeders that supply components to the robot, conveyor belts, emergency stop controls, machine vision systems, safety interlock systems, bar code printers and an almost infinite array of other industrial devices which are accessed and controlled via the operator control panel.

The teach pendant or PC is usually disconnected after programming and the robot then runs on the program that has been installed in its controller. However a computer is often used to 'supervise' the robot and any peripherals, or to provide additional storage for access to numerous complex paths and routines.

End-of-arm tooling

The most essential robot peripheral is the end effector, or end-of-arm-tooling (EOT). Common examples of end effectors include welding devices (such as MIG-welding guns, spot-welders, etc.), spray guns and also grinding and deburring devices (such as pneumatic disk or belt grinders, burrs, etc.), and grippers (devices that can grasp an object, usually electromechanical or pneumatic). Another common means of picking up an object is by vacuum. End effectors are frequently highly complex, made to match the handled product and often capable of picking up an array of products at one time. They may utilize various sensors to aid the robot system in locating, handling, and positioning products.

Controlling movement

For a given robot the only parameters necessary to completely locate the end effector (gripper, welding torch, etc.) of the robot are the angles of each of the joints or displacements of the linear axes (or combinations of the two for robot formats such as SCARA). However, there are many different ways to define the points. The most common and most convenient way of defining a point is to specify a Cartesian coordinate for it, i.e. the position of the 'end effector' in mm in the X, Y and Z directions relative to the robot's origin. In addition, depending on the types of joints a particular robot may have, the orientation of the end effector in yaw, pitch, and roll and the location of the tool point relative to the robot's faceplate must also be specified. For a jointed arm these coordinates must be converted to joint angles by the robot controller and such conversions are known as Cartesian Transformations which may need to be performed iteratively or recursively for a multiple axis robot. The mathematics of the relationship between joint angles and actual spatial coordinates is called kinematics. See robot control

Positioning by Cartesian coordinates may be done by entering the coordinates into the system or by using a teach pendant which moves the robot in X-Y-Z directions. It is much easier for a human operator to visualize motions up/down, left/right, etc. than to move each joint one at a time. When the desired position is reached it is then defined in some way particular to the robot software in use, e.g. P1 - P5 below.

Typical programming

Most articulated robots perform by storing a series of positions in memory, and moving to them at various times in their programming sequence. For example, a robot which is moving items from one place to another might have a simple 'pick and place' program similar to the following:

Define points P1–P5:

  1. Safely above workpiece (defined as P1)
  2. 10 cm Above bin A (defined as P2)
  3. At position to take part from bin A (defined as P3)
  4. 10 cm Above bin B (defined as P4)
  5. At position to take part from bin B. (defined as P5)

Define program:

  1. Move to P1
  2. Move to P2
  3. Move to P3
  4. Close gripper
  5. Move to P2
  6. Move to P4
  7. Move to P5
  8. Open gripper
  9. Move to P4
  10. Move to P1 and finish

For examples of how this would look in popular robot languages see industrial robot programming.

Singularities

The American National Standard for Industrial Robots and Robot Systems — Safety Requirements (ANSI/RIA R15.06-1999) defines a singularity as “a condition caused by the collinear alignment of two or more robot axes resulting in unpredictable robot motion and velocities.” It is most common in robot arms that utilize a “triple-roll wrist”. This is a wrist about which the three axes of the wrist, controlling yaw, pitch, and roll, all pass through a common point. An example of a wrist singularity is when the path through which the robot is traveling causes the first and third axes of the robot’s wrist (i.e. robot's axes 4 and 6) to line up. The second wrist axis then attempts to spin 180° in zero time to maintain the orientation of the end effector. Another common term for this singularity is a “wrist flip”. The result of a singularity can be quite dramatic and can have adverse effects on the robot arm, the end effector, and the process. Some industrial robot manufacturers have attempted to side-step the situation by slightly altering the robot’s path to prevent this condition. Another method is to slow the robot’s travel speed, thus reducing the speed required for the wrist to make the transition. The ANSI/RIA has mandated that robot manufacturers shall make the user aware of singularities if they occur while the system is being manually manipulated.

A second type of singularity in wrist-partitioned vertically articulated six-axis robots occurs when the wrist center lies on a cylinder that is centered about axis 1 and with radius equal to the distance between axes 1 and 4. This is called a shoulder singularity. Some robot manufacturers also mention alignment singularities, where axes 1 and 6 become coincident. This is simply a sub-case of shoulder singularities. When the robot passes close to a shoulder singularity, joint 1 spins very fast.

The third and last type of singularity in wrist-partitioned vertically articulated six-axis robots occurs when the wrist's center lies in the same plane as axes 2 and 3.

Singularities are closely related to the phenomena of Gimbal Lock, which has a similar root cause of axes becoming lined up.

A video illustrating these three types of singular configurations is available here.[8]

Market structure

According to the International Federation of Robotics (IFR) study World Robotics 2014, there were between 1,332,000 and 1,600,000 operational industrial robots by the end of 2013. This number is estimated to reach 1,946,000 by the end of 2017.[9]

For the year 2011 the IFR estimates the worldwide sales of industrial robots with US$8.5 billion. Including the cost of software, peripherals and systems engineering, the annual turnover for robot systems is estimated to be US$25.5 billion in 2011.[10]

China is the largest industrial robot market, with 36,350 units sold in 2013.

The Japanese government estimates the industry could surge from about $5.2 billion in 2006 to $26 billion in 2010 and nearly $70 billion by 2025. In 2005, there were over 370,000 operational industrial robots in Japan. A 2007 national technology roadmap by the Trade Ministry calls for 1 million industrial robots to be installed throughout the country by 2025.[11]

Estimated worldwide annual supply of industrial robots (in units):[12]

Yearsupply
1998 69,000
1999 79,000
2000 99,000
2001 78,000
2002 69,000
2003 81,000
2004 97,000
2005 120,000
2006 112,000
2007 114,000
2008 113,000
2009 60,000
2010 118,000
2012 159,346
2013 178,132

See also

References

  1. ↑ https://www.iso.org/obp/ui/#iso:std:iso:8373:ed-2:v1:en
  2. ↑ Turek, Fred D. (June 2011). "Machine Vision Fundamentals, How to Make Robots See". NASA Tech Briefs. 35 (6): 60–62. Retrieved 2011-11-29.
  3. ↑ "An Automatic Block-Setting Crane". Meccano Magazine. Liverpool UK: Meccano. 23 (3): 172. March 1938.
  4. ↑ Taylor, Griffith P. (1995). Robin Johnson, ed. The Robot Gargantua. Gargantua: Constructor Quarterly.
  5. ↑ KUKA-Roboter.de: 1973 The First KUKA Robot English, 28th of March 2010
  6. ↑ "History of Industrial Robots" (PDF). Retrieved 2012-10-27.
  7. ↑ "EVS-EN ISO 9283:2001". Retrieved 17 April 2015.
  8. ↑ "Singularities in six-axis vertically-articulated industrial robots". CoRo Blog. Retrieved 17 April 2015.
  9. ↑ http://www.worldrobotics.org/uploads/tx_zeifr/Executive_Summary_WR_2014.pdf
  10. ↑ "The continuing success story of industrial robots". International Federation of Robotics. Retrieved 2012-11-11.
  11. ↑ "Japan looks to a robot future". msnbc.com. Retrieved 17 April 2015.
  12. ↑ http://www.worldrobotics.org/uploads/media/2011_Executive_Summary.pdf

Further reading

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