Increased Competition in the Field of Robotics Essay Example for Free

Increased Competition in the Field of Robotics Essay If desired, calibrate the virtual process to reflect physical conditions and download optimized robot programs. By simulating your process you can always be sure to have the right combination of robot, gun and fixtures. After all, in virtual reality, bumping in to car parts and fixtures does not really matter. Arc Geometric simulation enables accurate arc weld robot programs with optimized gun angle against the seam. Also, it is easy to evaluate guns with different swan neck angles for best reachability. Spot When working on-line it is not an easy thing to program a spot welding robot to weld perpendicular to a surface. With the aid of geometric simulation systems, this is ensured, with improved quality and a durable weld as a result. Evaluating and designing spot weld guns is effectively done in a virtual environment. Laser Laser technology has made many processes more efficient. Robotized laser applications really deserves state of the art manufacturing simulation technology as a companion. Truly these technologies is for the future. Painting When programming a paint robot on-line, there are often difficulties associated with where and how to store robot positions in order to get the best result. Off-line programming reduces many of these difficulties. Features such as paint thickness simulation and the fact that you actually see where you are aiming truly help. Consumption of paint, products, and above all time needed for on-line touch up dramatically decreases. Handling and assembly Simulation can also be used in robotized handling and assembly operations. The product can be checked in fixtures and grippers and together with other products. Kinematics can be added to products. During simulation of handling processes reachability can be checked and collisions can be detected and provided. Simulation can also be used to optimize the layout by checking the placement of fixtures, racks and other equipment. Simulation of human operations Not only robot operations can be simulated, also human operations are possible to simulate. Simulation of human operations is important in an ergonomic point of view. Reachability and accessibility can be analyzed in an early stage of the project, before any physical verification is possible. Different sizes of the human model can be used to point out if changes in layout, process equipment or product are necessary. By using simulation, difficult and/or impossible operations can be eliminated. The purpose of these analyses is to prevent harmful operations. The result of the simulations can also be used in an educational purpose. 4. Robots in place of Human in Food Industry. Robots to solve end-of-line issues in food industry. They face a number of challenges in their end-of-line packaging operations. In a manual process, they must deal with ergonomic issues, labor availability, and the uncertainty of increasing costs associated with recent and potential future legislation. In an automated process, accommodating rapid-fire package changes driven by sustainability initiatives and shelf impact, as well understanding and improving key performance measures such as Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE), are key. And in any process, food safety is an overriding concern on the minds of processors, as the consequences of foodborne illness and/or massive product recalls have affected a wide range of food categories. . Current Robotic Trends in Packaging Industrial robots have emerged as a valuable end-of-line tool to help address these challenges for food manufacturers, as the performance and user-friendliness of the technology has increased while costs have decreased. Growth in vision-assisted robotic applications is especially notable, as vision enables a robot to emulate the flexibility of human hand-eye coordination and perform a number of in-process product inspections for quality assurance. A number of statistics point to increased adoption of robotics in the industry: The International Federation of Robotics (IFR) Statistics Department, which provides information on world-wide trends in robotics, reports optimistically about robotics industry growth in the coming years. According to the Robotics and Automation Society, whose goal is to †advance innovation, education, and fundamental and applied research in Robotics and Automation, † (1) says that †Nearly every major user industry increased its purchases in the opening quarter of 2010. Especially strong gains were seen in robot sales to the semiconductor/electronics/photonics industries as well as food consumer goods. † In addition, â€Å"Material handling remains the largest application area for new robot orders, accounting for some 60% of the units sold. Many food companies and packaging machinery manufacturers have successfully applied robots in a wide variety of processes in the dairy, meat, baking, confection, frozen, snack, beverage, and even produce industries.