ROBOT APPLICATIONS

ROBOT APPLICATIONS Material handling Processing operations. Most of the current applications of industrial robots are in manufacturing. The applications can be classified into following categories. Material handling Processing operations. Assembly and inspection.

MATERIAL HANDLING Robots are used to move materials or parts from one place to another. Material handling applications are divided into the following categories. Material transfer applications. Machine loading and unloading applications.

MATERIAL TRANSFER APPLICATIONS The primary purpose of a robot is to pickup parts at one location and places them at new location. The robots used for this purpose are called pick-and place robots. Only two, three or four joints are required for most of the applications. In some cases, reorientation of the part must be accomplished during the relocation. A more complex example of material transfer is palletizing, in which the robot must retrieve parts, cartons or other objects from one location and deposit them onto a pallet or other container with multiple positions.

ROBOT APPLICATIONS FOR MACHINE LOADING AND UN LOADING Industrial robot applications of machine loading and / or unloading include the following. Die Casting Plastic Moulding Metal machining operations Forging Press working

PROCESSING OPERATIONS Processing applications are those in which the robot performs a processing operation on a work part. Example of industrial robot applications in the processing category include spot welding, continuous arc welding, spray painting and other rotating spindle processes. Spot Welding: It is a metal joining process in which two sheet metal parts are fused together at localized point of contact. Two copper based electrodes are used to squeeze the metal parts together and then apply a large electrical current across the contact point to cause the fusion to occur. Robots used for spot welding are usually large, with sufficient payload capacity to hold and use the heavy welding gun. Five or six axes are generally required to achieve the required positioning and orientation of the welding gun.

PROCESSING OPERATIONS Spray Coating: Spray coating makes use of a spray gun directed at the object to be coated. Paint flows through the nozzle of the spray gun to be dispersed and applied over the surface of the object. Robot applications include spray coating of appliances, automobile car bodies, engines and other parts, spray staining of wood products and spraying of porcelain coatings on bathroom fixtures.

ASSEMBLY AND INSPECTION The assembly system is a combination of a robot, a transfer device and part feeders. One approach in designing assembly systems is that the assembled object is moving on a straight line indexing or rotary indexing table and in each station a robot is adding one part to the assembled object. This configuration requires many simple robots along the assembly line, each performing a particular operation. The advantage of this system is the small cycle time per product.

Inspection The robots perform loading and unloading tasks to support an inspection or testing machine. This case is really machine loading and unloading, where the machine is an inspection machine. The robot picks parts that enter the cell, loads and unloads them to carry out the inspection process. In some cases, the inspection may result in parts sortation that must be accomplished by the robot. The robot manipulates an inspection device, such as a mechanical probe, to test the product. This case is similar to a processing operation in which the end effector attached to the robot wrist is the inspection probe.

ROBOT APPLICATIONS IN FUTURE The future tasks may require higher level of intelligence and decision making capabilities, for which artificial intelligence may needs to be incorporated in design of robot controllers. The future robots technology may use more advanced sensor capabilities i.e., vision, tactile sensing and voice communication etc. The future robots will have the gripper devices with the concept of universal hand to handle tactile sensing and hand articulation. The future robots may perform inaccessible environments like maintenance and repairs of complex machinery. The robots may be used in underground coal mining, fire fighting operations, space etc. Robots can be used as security guards and may have many more domestic applications The future robot technology may permit teleconference capabilities, so that humans can command the robot from remote environment.