The Department of Mechatronics at UPT. Present and perspectives in research, development and innovation.

Maniu, Inocentiu ; Ciupe, Valentin

Abstract: At the Department of Mechatronics from "Politehnica" University of Timisoara the concept of research, development and innovation is taken one step further into the future by means of acquiring and integrating new robotic equipments and new flexible manufacturing cells. Also space is provided for the virtual reality laboratory which has new modelling and simulation tools, usable in both research and training areas.

Key words: mechatronics, robotics, training, simulation, modelling

1. INTRODUCTION

At the Department of Mechatronics from "Politehnica" University of Timisoara (UPT) the concept of research, development and innovation is taken one step further by means of acquiring and setting up new robotic equipments, flexible manufacturing cells and modelling and simulation tools. All these are meant to integrate and interact in order to help developing new concepts in robotics, conducting efficient and oriented training and maintaining the traditional research, development and innovation (RDI) directions. The paper presents the main laboratories and equipments, exposing their capabilities and uses along with the main threads opened in the field of robotics, training and research.

2. FLEXIBLE MANUFACTURING SYSTEMS

The first flexible manufacturing system used in the department is the CIM Pilot Station (figure 1). It is a scaled FMS, used for training in cell workflow programming, CNC manufacturing, robotized storage and manipulation, PLC programming, and vision-based shape recognition. The system is equipped with Intelitek (former Eshed-Robotec) components and comprises of 3 work stations:

--the automated storage, having a rotary indexed storage space and being serviced by de ER-VII robot;

--the numerically controlled mill EMCO F1 CNC, fed by the ER-V robot;

--the automated assembly and testing station, serviced by the SCORA ER-14 robot;

--the interconnecting conveyor.

[FIGURE 1 OMITTED]

Another training equipment is the FESTO MPS (figure 2), a scaled Flexible Modular Production System for training in Mechatronics and Robotics. It is designed to be used for line-assembly programming and optimization, PLC programming and electro-pneumatic actuation (Grigorescu et al., 2005). The system has four stations:

--distribution, which extracts pieces from a vertical storage and by making use of a swing arm and a suction cup moves those pieces to the next station;

--testing, its role being that of piece height measurement and comparison; it also features an inclined slide with air cushion for piece transportation to the next station;

--processing, this station simulates milling of a groove in the piece (cylinder end cap) and also features a rotary indexed table with presence and piece orientation sensors;

--manipulation with insertion, it is essentially a two axes Cartesian robot that collects pieces from the previous station and sorts them on different criteria in two inclined storages; it also features fibre-optic sensors for piece presence confirmation. The Festo MPS is extendable by chaining more stations (up to 9) to simulate an entire assembly and testing production line.

3. TRAINING IN ROBOTICS

As the necessity of renewing the robotics park in the department, the KUKA Technological Transfer and Training Centre was founded (figure 3). It is formed by two cells with last generation, high performance industrial robots. The system is used for programming different applications in manipulation, path planning and robot cooperation operations and it comprises two cells:

--one cell is fitted with the Kuka KR-15 robot;

--the other with the Kuka KR-125 robot;

--both robots are electrically actuated with pneumatic grippers having large payloads, high speed and acceleration.

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The beneficiaries trained on this robotized cells report increasing productivity and production flexibility by implementing and production-wise programming their own flexible robotic cells.

Because industrial robots mean more than manipulation, a CLOOS robotized cell was assembled (figure 4). This is built around a CLOOS Rotrol II industrial robot that is used for welding and plasma cutting, robot programming and spatial path planning techniques (Diaconu & Maniu, 2006).

The cell was founded from an Excellence Research Contract (CEEX), entitled "Researches Regarding the Possibility of Using Robotic Systems to Increase the Technical-economical Competitiveness of the Romanian Industry" (Maniu, et al., 2005).

Another piece of equipment found at the department is Dynalog's CompuGauge[TM] Robot Measurement and Performance Analysis System (figure 5). This is a high precision opto-mechanical device, attached to a robot's flange used to measure its positioning performance and repeatability. The system's software allows for on-line measurement, off-line visualization and data analysis.

4. SIMULATION AND MODELING IN VIRTUAL REALITY

Following the tendencies in the field of robotic design, the Virtual Reality Laboratory was built up. It is used for modelling, simulation and 3D visualization of robotic systems and comprises of:

--6 DOF and force feedback haptic device, type Phantom Desktop;

--virtual helmet type 5 DTHMD 800 and also the required software packs;

--virtual hand glove (16 sensors) type 5DT, with head tracker;

--three-dimensional 23" TFT monitor with 3x26[degrees] viewing angle;

--3D DLP video-projector and 10 pairs of 3D wireless glasses;

--graphic station type Silicon Graphics Prism[TM] Deskside;

In order for the above stated equipments to integrate seamlessly and to work efficiently the DELMIA Resource Modelling & Simulation Tools was acquired (figure 6), containing the following module packs:

--Delmia IGRIP, which is a physics-based, scalable robotic simulation solution for modelling and off-line programming of complex multi-device robotic work cells;

--DELMIA VIRTUAL NC, being the complete digital manufacturing solution for rapidly emulating, validating and optimizing NC machine processes;

--DELMIA QUEST, acting as a complete 3D digital factory environment for process flow simulation and analysis.

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5. RDI DIRECTIONS

All the equipments present in the Robotics Laboratory dictate the main directions in research, development and innovation at the Department of Mechatronics, directions that can be summarised as follows:

--training in robotics and mechatronics;

--maintaining the traditional research directions;

--developing adaptive robot control based on sensorial information;

--work on robotized flexible manufacturing systems synthesis;

Also new research paths will be opened in the mobile robots and general robotics field of interest:

--teleoperating installations;

--artificial intelligence elements used in robotic systems (artificial vision, modelling/simulation, fuzzy logic, artificial neural networks);

--robotic devices for interacting with virtual reality and virtualized reality.

A well defined research path for the department consists in the conception in virtual reality of a virtual factory (using Delmia software) and experimenting the results obtained on real flexible robotized systems (Kuka and Cloos cells).

As part of RDI present activities, the Mechatronics Department is partner alongside other 7 research institutions, renowned universities and companies among which is found S.C. Robcon S.R.L., in the European FP6 project, no. 017146/14.03.2005, "Skill-based Inspection and Assembly for Reconfigurable Automation Systems", acronym SIARAS (SIARAS, 2005). This project is coordinated by IPA Stuttgart and has as main objective insuring simple and dynamical reconfiguration of complex production systems, so that they meet the economical efficiency and reliability criteria required by consumers.

6. REFERENCES

Diaconu, A. & Maniu, I. (2006). Research and training in robotized welding. Buletinul Institutului Politehnic din Iasi, Fasc. 7A, 9/2006, pp.195-200, ISSN 1011-2855

Grigorescu, S. et al. (2005). Simulation of Festo Modular Production System. Academic Journal of Manufacturing Engineering, Vol. 3, No. 2/2005, pp.53-58, ISSN 1583-7904

Maniu, I. et al. (2005). Researches Regarding the Possibility of Using Robotic Systems to Increase the Technical-economical Competitiveness of the Romanian Industry. Available from: http://ceex21.mctr.mec.upt.ro, Accessed: 2007-05-15

SIARAS (2005). The SIARAS FP6 Program, Available from: http://www.siaras.org, Accessed: 2007-05-20