Advances in Robotics for Additive/Hybrid Manufacturing: ... area of additive and hybrid manufacturing (c.f. wire arc additive manufacturing (WAAM), laser.
Advances in Robotics for Additive/Hybrid Manufacturing: Robot Control, Speech Interface and Path Planning
Abstract
Industrial Robotics is a key discipline in modern engineering. It unfolds in various technical areas during the last few years by originating machines and solutions that are able to solve most of the production demands of modern manufacturing. Although there were important efforts in several robotic related areas, human-machine interfaces (HMI) - and related devices - were the subject of significant attention and development. In fact, the manufacturing scenario evolved from the co-worker scenario, where operators and machines must cooperate, to hyper flexible frameworks, where agility is a key issue, and now to developments that aim to introduce cognitive capacities into the manufacturing machines and solutions, which will make them able to solve most of the manufacturing problems autonomously. It is obvious that the challenge for flexible and agile manufacturing rely mainly on the development of simple and natural humanmachine interfaces. Another area that is emerging, with the trend to fully digitalize manufacturing and explore the internet of things (Industry 4.0 and e-factory concepts), is the area of additive and hybrid manufacturing (c.f. wire arc additive manufacturing (WAAM), laser metal deposition (LMD) and CAD/CAM) for effective production and repair of actual components. In this field, printing of metal poses many challenges due to high processing temperatures and phase transformation phenomenon. Industry is expanding the capacity to print metals, including light-weight and expensive materials and alloys. In fact, the world of manufacturing is expecting for a disruptive innovative manufacturing system that could enable autonomous and cost-effective production of radically new materials. This article introduces recent developments on human-machine interface (HMI) devices for robotic manufacturing cells, namely the ones used for additive/hybrid manufacturing as well as interoperability methods between the CAD data and material modelling systems. It is presented - using a few solutions developed by the authors - as a set of conceptual guidelines discussed throughout the article and as a way to demonstrate how they can be applied and their practical implications. Keywords: Robot Control, Additive Manufacturing (AM), 3D-Printing, Hybrid Manufacturing, Speech Activated Robots, Path Planning. CAD/CAM.
