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R & A Visits Fanuc Robotics
Posted by
robopatrj
on
Monday, May 15, 2006 (EST)
A brief summary of R & A's visit to Fanuc Robotics in Rochester Hills, MI.
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On Thursday March 23rd the Robotics and Automation chapter of IEEE South East Michigan was privileged to tour Fanuc Robotics in Rochester hills Michigan. The group met at Fanuc at 6pm and had a short group meeting before the tour. The meeting consisted as an update on the R & A website as well as a short discussion on how to begin the online newsletter. At the conclusion of group meeting, our host Claude Dinsmoor gave a presentation on Fanuc Robotics Corporation. Given the time constraints and the emphasis on the tour, the presentation was short but informative. Mr. Dinsmoor discussed the reliability of Fanuc Robotics as well as Fanuc place in the Robotics Market all over the world. There have been over 150, 000 Fanuc Industrial robotics installed and are currently operating in plants and factories today. One of the more important points of the presentation was that installing robotics in a given plant may help a plant stay in Michigan or the US instead of going overseas. The reason is that throughput and quality increase while the costs decreases because it is not as expensive to keep robots as it is personnel. Moreover, the cost of shipping goods back and forth from overseas is eliminated since the manufacturing stays in the US.
After the presentation Mr. Dinsmoor began the tour of the facility in Rochester Hills. A number of impressive demonstrations were on the floor for us to see as well as a number of ongoing projects. The first of the three demonstrations was a robot, equipped with a vision system, picking parts from one bin and placing them in another. The part was a connection rod for an engine which was randomly place in the first bin. The robot would have to find a part it was able to reach (in a position such the robot would not make contact with the bin or bend in such a way that it would crash with itself), orient itself while reaching in to pick up the part. Although it took a few seconds to find a part an orient itself, the robot was able to “pick and place” several parts throughout the demonstration lasting only about 2 minutes.
The second demonstration was a robot that would pickup an engine value and place it inside the block. The robot used vision and force feedback in this case in order to pick the value up off the parts stand, and then install it in the engine block. There was a part outside the demonstration area for the observers to try for themselves. It is not an easy task to place that valve into the block. The shaft of the valve fits very tightly into the block making it a challenge to get the valve all the way into the block without it getting stuck before it is completely seated. This is the reason for the force feedback on the robot. The robot can “sense” the force it is placing on the valve so it can adjust as necessary so that the valve will seat in the block. An impressive demonstration to say the least. Finally, the last robot was very much like the second in that there was both a vision system and a force feedback system employed. This robot was to pick two spur gears and place them on parallel shafts. The gearbox being assembled in this demonstration was the one that is used on joint 2 of a Fanuc Robot making the demonstration that much more interesting. Although the lighting at the m time didn’t allow us to see an entire cycle of the system, it was a remarkable example of what Fanuc robotics can do for a client.
Throughout the remainder of the tour the group saw systems that will remove parts from a truck robotically without the need for human intervention, seal the hem flange of a car or truck without the need to open the doors, hoods or trunks, paint a vehicle with very little need to program the robot manually since the system could take the CAD data and use it to plot paths for the robot to follow while painting, and many other applications that would impress anyone wanting to use robotics for their plant or factory.
The Robotics and Automation society is planning many other tours and events to satisfy curiosity as well as foster robotics innovation in South East Michigan. If anyone is interested in joining us for the next event, please contact myself, Robert Sealy 248-894-2364, robert.sealy@ieee.org or visit our website www.semrobotics.org and register so you will receive announcements and new events automatically.
I would like to express my thanks to Claude Dinsmoor for all his help and hard work to allow us the opportunity to tour Fanuc Robotics! Thanks Claude!
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