4.  Industrial robots  

Industrial robots are general-purpose, re-programmable machines which respond to the sensory signals received from the system environment. Based on these signals, robots carry out programmed work or activity. They also take simple independent decisions and communicate/interact with the other machines and the central computer. Robots are widely employed in the following applications in manufacturing [3]:

A. Parts handling: it involves various activities such as:

• Recognizing, sorting/separating the parts
• Picking and placing parts at desired locations
• Palletizing and de-palletizing
• Loading and unloading of the parts on required machines

B. Parts processing: this may involves many manufacturing operations such as:

• Routing
• Drilling
• Riveting
• Arc welding
• Grinding
• Flame cutting
• Deburring
• Spray painting
• Coating
• Sand blasting
• Dip coating
• Gluing
• Polishing
• Heat treatment

C. Product building: this involves development and building of various products such as:

• Electrical motors
• Car bodies
• Solenoids
• Circuit boards and operations like
  • Bolting
  • Riveting
  • Spot welding
  • Seam welding
  • Inserting
  • Nailing
  • Fitting
  • Adhesive bonding
  • Inspection

Further detail discussion on various aspects of industrial robots such as its configuration, building blocks, sensors, and languages has been carried out in the last module of this course.

5.  Automatic quality control and inspection systems

Supply of a good quality product or a system to the market is the basic aim of the manufacturing industry. The product should satisfy the needs of the customers and it must be reliable. To achieve this important product-parameter during a short lead time is really a challenge to the manufacturing industry. This can be achieved by building up the ‘quality' right from the product design stage; and maintaining the standards during the ‘production stages' till the product-delivery to the market.

A number of sensors and systems have been developed that can monitor quality continuously with or without the assistance of the operator. These technologies include various sensors and data acquisition systems, machine vision systems, metrology instruments such as co-ordinate measuring machine (CMM), optical profilometers, digital calipers and screw gauges etc. Now days the quality control activities are being carried out right from the design stage of product development. Various physics based simulation software is used to predict the performance of the product or the system to be developed. In the manufacture of products such as spacecrafts or airplanes, all the components are being critically monitored by using the digital imaging systems throughout their development.

In the next module we will study the various sensors, signal conditioning devices and data conversion devices which are commonly used in mechatronics and manufacturing automation.