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JRM Vol.35 No.1 pp. 51-64
doi: 10.20965/jrm.2023.p0051
(2023)

Paper:

Development of a Flexible Assembly System for the World Robot Summit 2020 Assembly Challenge

Lizhou Xu*, Farshad Nozad Heravi*, Marcel Gabriel Lahoud*, Gabriele Marchello*, Mariapaola D’Imperio*, Syed Haider Jawad Abidi*, Mohammad Farajtabar**, Michele Martini*, Silvio Cocuzza***, Massimiliano Scaccia*, and Ferdinando Cannella*

*Industrial Robotics Facility, Italian Institute of Technology
30 Via Morego, Genova 16163, Italy

**Department of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, University of Calgary
2500 University Dr NW, Calgary, Alberta T2N 1N4, Canada

***Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Padova
1 Via Venezia, Padova 35131, Italy

Received:
July 31, 2022
Accepted:
December 1, 2022
Published:
February 20, 2023
Keywords:
World Robot Challenge, industrial robot, assembly, gripper design, system integration
Abstract

The assembly challenge of the World Robot Challenge (WRC) 2020, which was a part of the World Robot Summit (WRS) 2020, aimed to complete rapidly changing tasks in high mix/low volume production through building agile and lean production systems that can respond to one-off products. The authors of this paper participated in the challenge with the team PneuBot from the Industrial Robotics Facility of the Italian Institute of Technology by developing a flexible assembly system. The purpose of this work was to develop an assembly system able to handle variations of parts and tasks with a minimal changeover in hardware and software. In particular, assembly tasks were carried out, such as the assembly of a DC motor, pulleys, and a flexible belt on a plate, starting from pieces of unknown positions and orientations on a tray. The proposed work cell is light-weighted and can be fast deployed and replicated. It is composed of two Universal Robots; an RGB-D camera mounted on the wrist of the robot, able to detect both the position and orientation of the different objects to manage; a custom gripping system composed of 3D printed fingers for manipulation purposes and miniature force sensors for the grasping detection.

Assembly cell and belt looping task

Assembly cell and belt looping task

Cite this article as:
L. Xu, F. Heravi, M. Lahoud, G. Marchello, M. D’Imperio, S. Abidi, M. Farajtabar, M. Martini, S. Cocuzza, M. Scaccia, and F. Cannella, “Development of a Flexible Assembly System for the World Robot Summit 2020 Assembly Challenge,” J. Robot. Mechatron., Vol.35 No.1, pp. 51-64, 2023.
Data files:
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Last updated on Nov. 01, 2024