Product category:
Robots and robotic systems
News Release from: KUKA Automation + Robotics | Subject: Robotic assembly cell with vision system
Edited by the Manufacturingtalk Editorial
Team on 17 February 2006
Robotic assembly cell has latest vision
system
A high-tech vision system is part of a cell containing a robot, which solders contacts onto the glass that houses the elements for a vehicle's communication and navigation equipment.
A new KUKA robot cell featuring an intuitive vision guidance system is being used by Pilkingtons in the assembly of vehicle rear windscreens and quarter lights The clever high-tech vision system is part of a cell containing a KUKA KR60 robot which solders contacts onto the glass that houses the elements for the vehicle's communication and navigation equipment
This article was originally published on Manufacturingtalk on 22 Dec 2003 at 8.00am (UK)
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It incorporates KUKA's new Vision software which is an easy-to-use interface between KUKA's PC-based controller and the system camera.
The Vision software ensures all the required operations and images can be handled via the KUKA robot teaching pendant.
The operator can view the acquired image, search results, manually trigger the camera, edit and create search routines.
After the windscreen is loaded manually onto an input conveyor at Pilkingtons' plant in St Helens, UK, it passes through two statically-mounted DVT vision systems which read a fiducial mark on the glass and re-orientate the robot to handle the glass in the correct position.
"In order to calculate the rotation of the artwork, the system must be able to compare two stud positions because a single stud can only provide positions in X and Y.
Once the calculated positions are transferred to the robot's coordinate system, the robot will then re-orientate to pick up the glass component and offer it accurately to the soldering machine," explained Paul Richards, general sales manager at KUKA Automation + Robotics.
"As KUKA's new Vision software is embedded in the robot controller, it eliminates the need for an intermediate vision control system.
In short, the robot is vision capability-enabled," he added.
It is the latest robot cell to be supplied to Pilkingtons by KUKA, the UK's leading supplier of automated production systems and high-technology 4- and 6-axis industrial robots. Request a free brochure from KUKA Automation + Robotics ...
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