Robot Reliability and Safety
Robot Reliability and Safety

Author: B.S. Dhillon

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2012-12-06

Total Pages: 267

ISBN-13: 1461231485

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Robots are increasingly being used in industry to perform various types of tasks. Some of the tasks performed by robots in industry are spot welding, materials handling, arc welding, and routing. The population of robots is growing at a significant rate in various parts of the world; for example, in 1984, a report published by the British Robot Association indicated a robot popula tion distribution between Japan (64,600), Western Europe (20,500), and the United States (13,000). This shows a significant number of robots in use. Data available for West Germany and the United Kingdom indicate that in 1977 there were 541 and 80 robots in use, respectively, and in 1984 these numbers went up to 6600 and 2623, respectively. Just as for other engineering products, the reliability and safety of robots are important. A robot has to be safe and reliable. An unreliable robot may become the cause of unsafe conditions, high maintenance costs, inconvenience, etc. Robots make use of electrical, mechanical, pneumatic, electronic, and hydraulic parts. This makes their reliability problem a challenging task because of the many different sources of failures. According to some published literature, the best mean time between failures (MTBF) achieved by robots is only 2500 hours. This means there is definite room for further improvement in robot reliability. With respect to safety, there have been five fatal accidents involving robots since 1978.

Machine Intelligence
Machine Intelligence

Author: A. Gomersall

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2013-03-14

Total Pages: 235

ISBN-13: 3662124025

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In 1981 Robotics Bibliography was published containing over 1,800 references on industrial robot research and development, culled from the scientific literature over the previous 12 years. It was felt that sensors for use with industrial robots merited a section and accordingly just over 200 papers were included. It is a sign of the increased research into sensors in production engineering that this bibliography on both the contact and non-contact forms has appeared less than three years after that first comprehensive collection of references appeared. In a reviell''; in 1975 Professor Warnecke of IPA, Stuttgart drew attention to the lack of sensors for touch and vision. Since then research workers in various companies, universities and national laboratories in the USA, the UK, Italy, Germany and Japan have concentrated on improving sensor capabilities, particularly utilising vision, artificial intelligence and pattern recognition principles. As a result many research projects are on the brink of commercial exploitation and development. This biblio graphy brings together the documentation on that research and development, highlighting the advances made in vision systems, but not neglecting the development of tactile sensors of various types. No bibliography can ever be comprehensive, but significant contributions from research workers and production engineers from the major industrialised countries over the last 12 years have been included.

Handbook of Industrial Robotics
Handbook of Industrial Robotics

Author: Shimon Y. Nof

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 1999-03-02

Total Pages: 1388

ISBN-13: 9780471177838

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Industrieroboter gehoren heute zum Alltag. In den letzten zehn Jahren verlagerte sich der Schwerpunkt der Neuentwicklungen weg von den Robotern selbst, hin zu alternativen Formen der kunstlichen Intelligenz, mit denen die Gerate ausgestattet werden. Dem Rechnung tragend, beschaftigt sich die zweite Auflage dieses Handbuchs vor allem mit Anwendungen und Strategien zur Problemlosung in der Industrie. Angesprochen werden Themen wie Graphiksimulatoren, objektorientierte Software, Kommunikationssysteme und Mikro- und Nanoroboter. (04/99)

Emerging Trends In Mobile Robotics - Proceedings Of The 13th International Conference On Climbing And Walking Robots And The Support Technologies For Mobile Machines
Emerging Trends In Mobile Robotics - Proceedings Of The 13th International Conference On Climbing And Walking Robots And The Support Technologies For Mobile Machines

Author: Hiromi Mochiyama

Publisher: World Scientific

Published: 2010-08-23

Total Pages: 1387

ISBN-13: 9814462578

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This book provides state-of-the-art scientific and engineering research findings and developments in the area of mobile robotics and associated support technologies. The book contains peer reviewed articles presented at the CLAWAR 2010 conference. Robots are no longer confined to industrial manufacturing environments. A great deal of interest is invested in the use of robots outside the factory environment. The CLAWAR conference series, established as a high profile international event, acts as a platform for dissemination of research and development findings and supports such a trend to address the current interest in mobile robotics to meet the needs of mankind in various sectors of the society. These include personal care, public health, and services in the domestic, public and industrial environments. The editors of the book have extensive research experience and publications in the area of robotics in general and in mobile robotics specifically, and their experience is reflected in editing the contents of the book.

Economics of Advanced Manufacturing Systems
Economics of Advanced Manufacturing Systems

Author: Hamid R. Parsaei

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2012-12-06

Total Pages: 374

ISBN-13: 1461534801

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The 1980s have witnessed a tremendous growth in the field of computer integrated manufacturing systems. The other major areas of development have been computer-aided design, computer-aided manufacturing, industrial robotics, automated assembly, cellular and modular material handling, computer networking and office automation to name just a few. These new technologies are generally capital intensive and do not conform to traditional cost structures. The net result is a tremendous change in the way costs should be estimated and economic analyses performed. The majority of existing engineering economy texts still profess application of traditional analysis methods. But, as was men tioned above, it is clear that the basic trend in manufacturing industries is itself changing. So it is quite obvious that the practice of traditional economic analysis methods should change too. This book is an attempt to address the various issues associated with non-traditional methods for evaluation of advanced computer-integrated technologies. This volume consists of twenty refereed articles which are grouped into five parts. Part one, Economic Justification Methods, consists of six articles. In the first paper, Soni et at. present a new classification for economic justification methods for advanced automated manufacturing systems. In the second, Henghold and LeClair look at strengths and weaknesses of expert systems in general and more specifically, an ap plication aimed at investment justification in advanced technology. The third paper, by Carrasco and Lee, proposes an enhanced economic methodology to improve the needs analysis, conceptual design and de tailed design activities associated with technology modernization.

Languages for Automation
Languages for Automation

Author: Shi-Kuo Chang

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2013-11-09

Total Pages: 526

ISBN-13: 1475713886

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Two central ideas in the movement toward advanced automation systems are the office-of-the-future (or office automation system), and the factory of-the-future (or factory automation system). An office automation system is an integrated system with diversified office equipment, communication devices, intelligent terminals, intelligent copiers, etc., for providing information management and control in a dis tributed office environment. A factory automation system is also an inte grated system with programmable machine tools, robots, and other pro cess equipment such as new "peripherals," for providing manufacturing information management and control. Such advanced automation systems can be regarded as the response to the demand for greater variety, greater flexibility, customized designs, rapid response, and 'Just-in-time" delivery of office services or manufac tured goods. The economy of scope, which allows the production of a vari ety of similar products in random order, gradually replaces the economy of scale derived from overall volume of operations. In other words, we are gradually switching from the production of large volumes of standard products to systems for the production of a wide variety of similar products in small batches. This is the phenomenon of "demassification" of the marketplace, as described by Alvin Toffier in The Third Wave.