Application Framework of Collaborative Robot to Mold Assembly Processes

Abstract

This study introduces an application framework for implementing collaborative robots to assist and collaborate with human workers in the mold assembly operation. In current practices, the molds are assembled manually, hence, possibility of ergonomics risk on the human occurs because of the heavyweight handling and repetitive force exertion tasks during the manual mold assembly. However, the requirement of human versatility to adapt to different mold types and frequent demand changes limits the shifting of the mold assembly from manual to full automation. Thus, this study proposes a human-robot collaboration (HRC) system to improve ergonomic problem on the human while maintaining the human ability in the mold assembly. The proposed application framework includes: (1) task assignment model assigns subtasks to agents available; (2) status recognition recognizes state of subtasks to update executing status; (3) reassignment of subtasks to cope with changes during the human-robot collaborative assembly operation. According to the agents’ capabilities, which determined based on task characteristics, the proposed framework implements collaborative robot to improve assembly time and ergonomic risk. By considering the potential of HRC systems for wider range of mold types and dimensions, the framework is then expanded to implement multi robots in the HRC mold assembly operation.