How can robotic manipulation and motion planning improve manufactured products?

As we progress from Industry 4.0 to 5.0, robotic manipulation is ever so more important. Not only in crash detection mode for other tooling/equipment, but with a higher priority to human-interface safety. In recent decades, the amazing advances made in camera and similar vision systems, had propelled robotic manipulation to the next level.

Moving tools, instruments and parts is the primary function of an industrial robot. If they did not need to move, no robot would be needed. There are a few applications where the robot applies force instead of motion to perform the work, but this is far less common and carrying tools/instruments/parts and interfacing with other stationary or moving objects.

The easiest way to fully concider and comprehend what motion planning is, can be by relating how the automotive industry had been stadily forging ahead with autonomous driving in the last 15-20 years. The autonomous driving system utilizes a combined mixture of complex logarithms, sensors, coordinate GPS systems, cameras, etc. They all interface and work together in a theory of constraints cyber framework, that reduces the probability of undesired movements.

Motion planning can help to select the best robot(s) and related machinery, equipment, and tooling, optimize sequence of operation, time cycles, robot loads, cell configuration, and part quality. Planning can run interative sequences or paths far more quickly than can physically be done, and in advance of the cell being completed and ready for launch. This can not only save launch time, but far more importantly, help achieve optimal production rates, costs, and quality.

One of the key overlooked macro reason for the usage of robotic manipulation, is cost. In the open market, cost is the primary force in mindest change and ultimately manufacturing process' change and/or enhancements. After initial investment, the ROI is based off of many factors: - increased productivity - decreased costly quality issues - more robust and repeatable products - full traceability of components and process window - less downtime and more accurate preventative maintenance (PM) due to continuous feedback loops.

Without conventional 6 axis robots, humans or hard automation would need to do the work, which could be unsafe or cause ergonomic or mental strains from repetitive motions. Prior to Robotics becoming available, any automated equipment was installed, tested, and then put into production and left running that way without any improvement for the life of the program. With Robotics, continuous improvement is far easier and likely to be done.

Implementation of robotic manipulation and planning is best executed with a diverse, cross-functional team that have experience and expertise in their field. As this is a relatively new introduction into manufacturing that can currently be made with mainly OEM's due to the high capital investment, for medium to smaller companies it is best to utilize third party companies that are specialized in this area.

There are currently no industries that are not pursuing robotic manipulation or planning. From agriculture, the medical industry or to industrial manufacturing including the automotive industry. For car OEM's around the world, there have been significant increased uses in this advanced technology. EV manufacturing has reduced direct human interaction in the manufacturing assembly process by over 15%. This number will continously be reduced as the adaption to robotic manipulation/planning is introduced to more areas of the build and assembly process of cars.

Automotive Body In White Respot has always been the high volume visible application, sparks flying, robots busily moving from spot weld to spot weld. Geo spot weld is slower and harder to understand, with clamps and locators. One of the most challenging applications is Tandem Press cold stamping of large auto body panels, with heavy bulky payloads fighting the "wind resistance" and narrowly getting out of the press before the upper die closes. Painting BIW is like watching a ballet, waving back and forth as atomized colored paint transforms the black primed BIW into the beautiful sculpture the stylist imagined.

Multi robotic path planning is maturing and becoming much more helpful, handheld tracker programming of free moves looks promising, optimizing loads to improve robot life could become quite popular, scaled up robot production and robot cost reduction could further drive robotic applications.