Although an automated flexible production cell is an intriguing prospect for small to median enterprises (SMEs) in current global market conditions, the complexity of programming remains one of the major hurdles preventing automation using industrial robots for SMEs. This paper provides a comprehensive review of the recent research progresses on the programming methods for industrial robots, including online programming, offline programming (OLP), and programming using Augmented Reality (AR). With the development of more powerful 3D CAD/PLM software, computer vision, sensor technology, etc. new programming methods suitable for SMEs are expected to grow in years to come.

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Review: Recent progress on programming methods for industrial robots

Multi-robot cells for spot welding use coordinated robots to assemble metal panels via spot welding by coordinated robots, for instance in the construction of car doors. The design of multi-robot cells for spot welding required both cell design and off-line motion planning. Cell design involves resource selection (such as robots and welding guns) and resource configuration, while considering cell productivity, costs, flexibility and reconfigurability. Motion planning involves allocating welding points to each resource and calculating collision-free motion plan for each robot. Currently, cell design and motion planning are sequential and manual activities, managed by different and separate industrial functional units. This results in several cycles before the design converges to a feasible final solution. The proposed approach introduces a unified methodology, aiming at optimizing the holistic cell design and motion planning, that reduces design time and errors. The feasibility of the proposed approach has been demonstrated in several ad-hoc basic replicable cases and in one industrial case. The outcome of this research improves state of the art, reducing design and motion planning time over current technology. Moreover, the method has been integrated into a computerized approach which has the potential to accelerate the whole cell design and motion planning processes and to reduce human efforts. Design and motion planning of multi-robot cells for body-in-white assembly.Method to reduce human effort in the computation of alternative solutions.Simultaneous resolution and optimization of the design and the motion planning.Testing of the approach on several replicable cases and one industrial case.

Multi-robot spot-welding cells for car-body assembly

This paper presents an offline programming (OLP) system for a complex robotic welding cell using DELMIA Automation. The goals of this research are aimed at investigating the feasibility of taking a commercially available robotic simulation package, DELMIA, and to use a Visual Basic Automation interface to reduce the programming time by creating automated ‘modules’ to carry out some of the tasks in the OLP process. The paper first investigates and presents the structure of OLP as a discreet method of individual steps. These steps are then evaluated for their potential as an automation candidate. The methods in which these steps are automated are then presented. A general analysis of the developed OLP system was carried out, providing a scope for future research and development.

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Offline Programming for a Complex Welding System Using DELMIA Automation

The manufacturing industries in the developed countries face challenges in terms of increased competition that puts demands on productivity, and a demographic change leading to an older population. ...

Virtual evaluation of industrial human-robot cooperation: An automotive case study

This paper discusses the problem of effective motion planning for industrial robots. The first part dealt with current method for off-line motion planning. In the second part the presented work is done by one of the simulation systems with automatic trajectory generation and off-line programming capability. A spot welding process is involved. The practical application of this step strongly depends on the method for robot path optimization with high accuracy, thus transform the path into a time and energy optimal robot program for the real world, which is discussed in the third step.

Optimal Motion Planning of Spot Welding Robot Applications

Off-line programming of spot-weld robot is the future application of robotics. It could develop robot programs without the access to the robot itself and reduce the programming time required for the manufacturing process. In this paper, an approach to implement the off-line programming of robot based on Robcad with the process knowledge of car-body in White welding was proposed. Some common problems, such as motion simulation, collision detection and calibration can be solved by this approach. Finally, the off-line programming of spot-welding robots for a car's welding work-station was realized.

Hui Li

Papers

Off-line programming of Spot-weld Robot for Car-body in White Based on Robcad