Industrial Application of Pneumatic Servo-Controlled Modular Robots

The paper describes a study of industrial applications for multi-axis modular robots. This study involved a survey of possible end users, the selection of suitable industrial applications and the engineering of complete manipulator systems. The modular systems are pneumatically actuated and the major axes are servo-controlled offering programmable point-to-point positioning. The mechanical hardware is based on a new range of modular handling units produced by Martonair UK Ltd. The servo-controlled actuators have been developed by SERC-sponsored collaborative research between the Department of Engineering Production at Loughborough University of Technology (LUT) and Martonair. The final phase of this project has been the industrial application of these units. To identify possible application areas, a survey of existing and potential robot users was carried out. After visits to those firms expressing applications interest, two tasks were identified as being suitable for distributed manipulators composed of LUT/Martonair modular elements. (The term ‘distributed manipulator’ describes configurations where the modular axes are not all mechanically coupled together but function in an integrated manner.) One of these systems, designed to automate the assembly of egg coddlers for the Worcester Royal Porcelain Co., is described in detail.