ADVANCED ROBOTICS TECHNOLOGY FOR INDUSTRIAL MANUFACTURING

Many factory floors rely on conveyor networks to move everything from raw materials to finished products. However, these networks are not designed to handle thousands of different items going to constantly changing locations, which is essential in a multi-product manufacturing process.

What happens if a conveyor system changes? Should the path be rerouted to avoid congested areas in the factory? Or should destinations be changed to move products to the optimal machining station?

Fortunately, automated guided vehicles (AGVs) and autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) are among the optimal options to meet these industrial objectives.

However, the challenge is that implementation is not as simple as instructing a material to move from point A to point B. While it might work, there is a risk of unexpected situations causing process interruptions. Therefore, most investments prioritize optimizing and coordinating advanced robotics technologies.

So far, the adoption journey of advanced robotics has gone through four stages – Entrant, Veterans, Pioneers, and Visionaries. Most current production facilities are in the Veteran stage. They have applied full digital twins for complete system verification and built control algorithms for the entire facility, though robots on each floor do not necessarily communicate with each other.

While the other stages are important, additional features are not groundbreaking—they are building blocks necessary to reach the Visionary stage.

The final stage in the advanced robotics journey is practical deployment, with near-complete automation while maintaining flexibility. Robots can automatically adjust process plans when a new product design enters their work area.

For example, if a new washing machine design has different screw hole positions, the robot assembly station can detect this and adjust based on computer vision, force sensors, or a combination of other technologies. The goal of this journey is not to provide specific solutions but to give deep insight into the overall process so the system can recognize changes.

Advanced robotics technology is bringing the factory of the future to today’s manufacturers as part of the Xcelerator and Tecnomatix portfolio. For more information on achieving higher automation through robotics, readers can refer to the recent article on Manufacturing Global or the related whitepapers.

Source: Siemens

SDE Digital Technology Co., Ltd. (SDE TECH) was established in 2014. In 2018, we became a Smart Expert Partner – a leading Siemens Digital Industries Software partner in Southeast Asia – Pacific for Siemens NX (Unigraphics NX), Simcenter, Solid Edge, Tecnomatix, and Teamcenter solutions.

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