Asynchronous Sequential Control of a Billet Handling System for Feeding a Hot Forging Machine

Abstract

The use of industrial robots in the advanced countries of the world is growing. Whilst generally the concept of a robot is taken as a highly versatile human‐like device the term also extends to include much simpler devices of the pick‐and‐place type with a fixed sequence of events and these form by far the largest proportion of the world's robot population. Whilst they lack versatility in themselves they often form part of a much more complex automatic system in which some degree of flexibility is required. In addition they must operate at their optimum rate whilst being fail‐safe in operation. The design of a suitable control system to meet such demands particularly when a number of such devices and the primary process machinery have to be interlinked can be solved with the aid of sequential switching theory.