Mechatronics

An overview of the use of robots in the automotive industry

By: Ameer Abdollahi Page 0

Mechatronics: An overview of the use of robots in the automotive industry

Contents
Mechatronics .......................................................................................................................................................................... 0 Mechatronics: ......................................................................................................................................................................... 2 An overview of the use of robots in the automotive industry................................................................................................ 2 1 2 3 4 5 6 Introduction ................................................................................................................................................................ 2 The Benefits of Mechatronics ..................................................................................................................................... 3 Mechatronics Tasks ..................................................................................................................................................... 4 Brief Evolution of Mechatronics ................................................................................................................................. 5 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................................................... 9 Bibliography ................................................................................................................................................................ 9

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Mechatronics: An overview of the use of robots in the automotive industry

Mechatronics: An overview of the use of robots in the automotive industry

1 Introduction
Robots are made of combination of Mechanical engineering, Electronic engineering, Computer engineering, Software engineering, Control engineering, and Systems Design engineering in order to design, and manufacture useful products called Robot. Robots can be used for anything, but today we just focus on use of them in Automotive industrial. Robots play an important in almost everyone's life today, not just because it makes the process faster but because with robots you can have more products with high accuracy in shorter period. Time is money and robots save it for you as they reduce the cost and increase the profit. You can imagine in today's life which companies have a competition to make maximum cars in a day. For example Audi Group produced 932260 vehicles worldwide this number compare to hand made cars like Audi R8 is much more, just for knowledge Audi produce 25 R8 per day. Another point in this area of research people find interesting and u might find it too, is robots with all of the complexly they are, you can run then very easily, easy as only pressing a button.

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Mechatronics: An overview of the use of robots in the automotive industry

The Benefits of Mechatronics

2.1 Industrial Benefits

Usually the work that is carried out by robots is, more accurate and cheaper than humans. Robots have other benefits, including: increased usage, increased production, improved quality of work, increased accuracy, prevents waste of manpower, increased speed, reduce costs, reduce waste, versatility, pointed to fatigue failure and eliminates human error and create a safer working environment for human workers. In the first point you can see Robots in many cases can be safe for other workers and the area, faster and more production and increase of quality and accuracy of products. Secondly that Robot can work in hazardous environments when humans cannot and also work with humans to create a safer environment for everyone which is the main point in this world. The Third point and one of great points of Robots, due to its surroundings and having no human emotion or needs, therefore they can be used to mass produce at a faster rate. Fourth point that I can point to Precision robots has much better vision and calculation speed than humans as they have micro-inch accuracy and a built in calculator. .Other main point of Robots can also multi task if fitted with the right equipment's and programmed to do so e.g., calculating, searching and fixing any faults. Lastly Robots are often used in cases where they can work better than humans and work in hazardous environments.

2.1.1 Detail Sub-topic 2.2 Social Benefits Human have lived in community for long period and during this time they always have tried to build up equipment's for better and easier life till now and will in future, one of the great and useful equipment's is automotive, which can be used for many Requirements such as transport equipment's. Today as the population of the world increases community need more requirements

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Mechatronics: An overview of the use of robots in the automotive industry

and thus automotive industrial need to employee more people to work for it as fast as possible. As human is meat and can't stand for a long period they need break, which is losing time in many case. This is only part of it. Human been need to feed and also take time to learn how to work with new equipment and work in new positions. Engineers provide industrial a new generation of workers, Robots, a system with faster, more accurate and high rate production, suitable to work in different areas and less risk to take.

Mechatronics Tasks
3.1 Types of Programing Robots can be programed for many different tasks, and also multi tasks, the main programs that a robot can be programed for are welding, Cutting, spray painting and sealing. Which should be very accurate and also takes high risk of involving human in to do those.

3.1.1 Welding
The most popular applications of robots are in industrial welding. The repeatability, uniformity quality, and speed of robotic welding are unmatched. The two basic types of welding are spot welding and arc welding, although laser welding is done. The automotive industry is a major user of robotic spot welders in different areas. A welding Robot can be much use full then human welders not just for accuracy in work, because of less undertake risk, as the welding areas are covered in high level of risk.

3.1.2 Cutting Robots are the perfect tool for many cutting jobs. Laser, plasma and water jet cutters are often used with robots. Due to the dangerous nature of these technologies robots are the obvious choice. Usually the cutting tool is placed on the robot and the part is presented to the robot by conveyor, turntable or manipulator. A second option is to have the robot hold the part and move it while the cutting tool is fixed. A robot can have hundreds of cutting paths programmed into it and on later models cad data can be fed directly to the controller.

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Mechatronics: An overview of the use of robots in the automotive industry

The excellent accuracy and path following capabilities give precise results time after time, in three dimensions and with greater flexibility than many dedicated cutting machines 3.1.3 Spray Painting Another popular and efficient use for robots is in the field of spray painting. The consistency and repeatability of a robot's motion have enabled near perfect quality while at the same time wasting no paint. Fastness and grace of Robots have made them suitable for spray painting field. Also another ability that makes spray painting is, you can have 4 or 6 Robots in the painting room which human cannot work together in a same painting room.

3.1.4 Sealing and gluing From an installation point of view sealing applications are very closely related to arc welding. The most important ability for the robot is to follow a path accurately with good control over speed. Automated sealing has been very difficult to get right in the past, a process that works very well at one speed may run into problems if it is accelerated. Over many years the problems have been ironed out and now sealing systems are not only very advanced but also have a great deal of connectivity with the robot so a good even bead of sealant will be applied. Robots are frequently used for sealing applications in the car industry using RTV to seal in windows, keep out water etc.

Brief Evolution of Mechatronics

4.1 Development
Electronic Robots are been in industrial for less than a century, they been used since people start using computers to manage works and stuff. To have look at the start off using Electronic Robots it can be explain in few lines.

4.1.1 The History of Industrial Robots Industrial Robot History 1954: The first programmable robot is designed by George Devol. He coins the term

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Mechatronics: An overview of the use of robots in the automotive industry

Universal Automation.

1956: Devol and engineer Joseph Engelberger form the world's first robot company, Unimation.

1960: Unimation is purchased by Condec Corporation and development of Unimate Robot Systems begins. American Machine and Foundry, later known as AMF Corporation, markets a robot, called the Versatran, designed by Harry Johnson and Veljko Milenkovic.

1962: The first industrial robot was online in a General Motors automobile factory in New Jersey. It was Devol and Engelberger's UNIMATE. It performed spot welding and extracted die castings.

1969: Nachi starts its robotic business.

1973: German robotics company, KUKA, creates the first industrial robot with six electromechanically-driven axes. It is called the Famulus.

1974: A robotic arm (the Silver Arm) that performed small-parts assembly using feedback from touch and pressure sensors was designed. Professor Scheinman, the developer of the Stanford Arm, forms Vicarm Inc. to market a version of the arm for industrial applications. The new arm is controlled by a minicomputer.

1974: Industrial robots were developed and installed in Fanuc factory. Dr. Inaba, President of FANUC was rewarded with "the 6th Annual Memorial Award of Joseph Marie Jacquard" by the American NC Society. The production and sale of DC servo motors were started under GETTYS MANUFACTURING CO., INC license.

1977: The Motoman L10 was introduced. It featured five axes and a maximum workload of

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Mechatronics: An overview of the use of robots in the automotive industry

10 kg, which included the gripper. It weighed 470kg. The Motoman L10 was the first robot that Yaskawa introduced on the market.

1977: ASEA, a European robot company, offers two sizes of electric powered industrial robots. Both robots use a microcomputer controller for programming and operation. Unimation purchases Vicarm Inc. during this year.

1978: Vicarm, Unimation creates the PUMA (Programmable Universal Machine for Assembly) robot with support from General Motors. Many research labs still use this assembly robot.

1979: Nachi developed the first motor-driven robots for spot welding.

1979: OTC DAIHEN was known as OTC America. OTC was an acronym for the Osaka Transformer Company. Located in Charlotte, NC, OTC was originally a supplier of welding equipment for other transplant companies. They expanded to become a provider to the Japanese auto market of GMAW supplies. In these early years, OTC Japan introduced its first generation of dedicated arc welding robots.

1980: The industrial robot industry starts its rapid growth, with a new robot or company entering the market every month.

1981: Takeo Kanade builds the direct drive arm. It is the first to have motors installed directly into the joints of the arm. This change makes it faster and much more accurate than previous robotic arms.

1985: OTC DAIHEN became the official OEM supplier of robots to the Miller Electric Company. Miller chose to assign different model numbers to the robots sold in the North American market. The prefixed the letters in the model with "MR," for Miller Robot. Miller

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Mechatronics: An overview of the use of robots in the automotive industry

no longer supports the robots that were manufactured in this era. The Japanese models featured their own number and name.

1987: ASEA of Vasteras, Sweden (founded 1883) and BBC Brown Boveri Ltd of Baden, Switzerland, (founded 1891) announce plans to form ABB Asea Brown Boveri Ltd., headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland. Each parent will hold 50 percent of the new company.

1988: The Motoman ERC control system was introduced with the ability to control up to 12 axes, more than any other controller at the time.

1989: Nachi Technology Inc., U.S.A. is established.

1992: FANUC Robot School was established. GM Fanuc Robotics Corporation was restructured to FANUC's wholly owned share holding company, FANUC Robotics Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, FANUC Robotics North America, Inc. and FANUC Robotics Europe GmbH. A Prototype of the intelligent robot was built.

1994: The Motoman MRC control system was introduced with the ability to control up to 21 axes. It could also synchronize the motions of two robots.

1995: Miller departed from the robotic business. OTC launched the Dynamic Robotic Division and moved the headquarters to Ohio to focus on selling robots to new users.

1996: Nachi expands robotics business, cutting tool, and bearing product ranges.

1998: The introduction of the XRC controller allowed the control of up to 27 axes and the synchronized control of three to four robots. The Motoman UP series introduced a simpler robot arm that was more readily accessible for maintenance and repair. Honda was

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Mechatronics: An overview of the use of robots in the automotive industry

instrumental in driving the development of both the UP series of arms and the XRC arm control.

2003: OTC DAIHEN introduced the Almega AX series, a line of arc welding and handling robots. The AX series robots integrate seamlessly with the OTC D series welding power supplies for advanced control capabilities. Information have taken from http://www.robots.com/roboteducation.php?page=industrial+history

Conclusion
According to the points above, Robots are great discovery and invention in engineering area; they start by single click or easy as pressing a button, faster than human workers and more accurate in shorter period. They got lots of potential in industrial area. Engineers can program them just by using computers from anywhere in the world by accessing to main network. They cost lot cheaper in long period and more suitable for dangerous areas which saving life of people. Companies save millions of dollars for using them, other side small companies won't be able to start up robot areas because of budget of buying and installing robots which can be few hundred dollars.

Bibliography
Brogrdh, T. (2007). Present and future robot control development--An industrial perspective.

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Mechatronics: An overview of the use of robots in the automotive industry

Annual Reviews in Control, 31(1), 69-79.

Edwards, M. (1984). Robots in industry: An overview. Applied Ergonomics, 15(1), 45-53.

Shibata, T. (2004). An overview of human interactive robots for psychological enrichment. Proceedings of the IEEE, 92(11), 1749-1758.

Lee, J. (1997). Overview and perspectives on Japanese manufacturing strategies and production practices in machinery industry. International Journal of Machine Tools and Manufacture, 37(10), 1449-1463

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