Methodology to select the best part presentation in cobotics

摘要

The collaborative robot (cobot) is a technology contributing to the industrial revolution Industry 4.0. Indeed, cobots’ flexibility and their easy to-use solutions fill a gap with traditional robots to robotize manufacturing of products with low volume and high mix profiles. Parts needed tc manufacture a product must first be presented to the cobot, so that afterwards it can perform operations such as assembly. The paper classifies thi current part presenters. Then, a methodology is proposed to select the best presenter based on the characteristics of the parts and the workstation To be aligned with markets requiring a high mix of products frequently renewed, the development times for part presenter design and for cobo programming are new data to select the best presenter. Indeed, at every part redesign, the part presenter changes and the cobot is reprogrammed These two times are depreciated based on the lifespan quantity of the part. Lifespan quantity is the number of the same parts, which are dropped-of on the part presenter during the part’s lifespan, i.e. until its redesign. A concrete industrial use case is explained to test the methodology. Result: conclude that a tray pattern is the best part presenter, except for parts with low lifespan quantity. Lifespan quantity of the part appears to be; significant parameter when deciding the best part presenter.