Cooperating Robots for Reconfigurable Assembly Operations: Review and Challenges

Abstract This paper discusses an approach to controlling autonomous and mobile robotic production units, which can change tasks and position in the shop floor to enable random production flow. The concept integrates control in two levels. At line level, a service-oriented architecture control deals with manufacturing operations assignments made to mobile and stationary resources and enables the autonomous communication between resources in order for adaptation actions to be decided on. At unit level, the logic enables the autonomous operation of resources, integrating information from sensors as well as mechatronic data. The paper focuses on the definition of the current state and the identification of the challenges for the implementation of such an approach.

[1]  José L. Martínez Lastra,et al.  Ontologies for Production Automation , 2009, Advances in Web Semantics I.

[2]  Ralf Koeppe,et al.  Robot-Robot and Human-Robot Cooperation in Commercial Robotics Applications , 2003, ISRR.

[3]  Kenn Steger-Jensen,et al.  Mathematical Formulation for Mobile Robot Scheduling Problem in a Manufacturing Cell , 2011, APMS.

[4]  Tharam S. Dillon,et al.  Advances in Web Semantics I - Ontologies, Web Services and Applied Semantic Web , 2008, Advances in Web Semantics I.

[5]  Paulo Leitão,et al.  Agent-based distributed manufacturing control: A state-of-the-art survey , 2009, Eng. Appl. Artif. Intell..

[6]  Jun Ota,et al.  Agile Assembly System by “Plug and Produce” , 2000 .

[7]  George Chryssolouris,et al.  Manufacturing Systems: Theory and Practice , 1992 .

[8]  Bernd Scholz-Reiter,et al.  Autonomous Processes in Assembly Systems , 2007 .

[9]  Anna Kochan,et al.  Volkswagen makes a success with lasers , 2004 .

[10]  Sotiris Makris,et al.  RFID driven robotic assembly for random mix manufacturing , 2012 .

[11]  David Naso,et al.  Modelling adaptive multi-agent manufacturing control with discrete event system formalism , 2004, Int. J. Syst. Sci..

[12]  Wolfram Burgard,et al.  Using artificial landmarks to reduce the ambiguity in the environment of a mobile robot , 2011, 2011 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation.

[13]  Stefan Bussmann,et al.  Holonic control of an engine assembly plant: an industrial evaluation , 2001, 2001 IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man and Cybernetics. e-Systems and e-Man for Cybernetics in Cyberspace (Cat.No.01CH37236).

[14]  Armando W. Colombo,et al.  An agent-based intelligent control platform for industrial holonic manufacturing systems , 2006, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics.

[15]  Tamio Arai,et al.  Automated Calibration of Robot Coordinates for Reconfigurable Assembly Systems , 2002 .

[16]  Gunther Reinhart,et al.  Automatic programming of robot-mounted 3D optical scanning devices to easily measure parts in high-variant assembly , 2009 .

[17]  Robert W. Brennan,et al.  An architecture for metamorphic control of holonic manufacturing systems , 2001, Comput. Ind..

[18]  Jun Ota,et al.  Holonic assembly system with Plug and Produce , 2001, Comput. Ind..

[19]  Nikolaos Papakostas,et al.  Integrating digital manufacturing and simulation tools in the assembly design process: A cooperating robots cell case , 2011 .

[20]  Anna Kochan.  Robots help Peugeot meet targets , 2002 .

[21]  Neil A. Duffie,et al.  Non Hierarchical Control of a Flexible Manufacturing Cell , 1987 .

[22]  Sotiris Makris,et al.  Automotive assembly technologies review: challenges and outlook for a flexible and adaptive approach , 2010 .

[23]  Stefan Bussmann,et al.  Self-organization in manufacturing operations , 2007, CACM.

[24]  Paul G. Ranky.  Collaborative, synchronous robots serving machines and cells , 2003, Ind. Robot.

[25]  Michael Wooldridge,et al.  Multiagent Systems for Manufacturing Control: A Design Methodology , 2010 .

[26]  Yoram Koren,et al.  Reconfigurable Manufacturing Systems , 2003 .

[27]  Anna Kochan.  BMW uses even more robots for both flexibility and quality , 2005, Ind. Robot.

[28]  Sotiris Makris,et al.  Industrial applications with cooperating robots for the flexible assembly , 2011, Int. J. Comput. Integr. Manuf..

[29]  Kenn Steger-Jensen,et al.  Scheduling a Single Mobile Robot for Feeding Tasks in a Manufacturing Cell , 2011 .

[30]  Mike Wilson.  Vision systems in the automotive industry , 1999 .