Affiliations: ABB Automation Technologies AB, Robotics, 721 68
Västerås, Sweden | Department of Computer Science and Electronics,
Mälardalen University, Västerås, Sweden | Department of Innovation, Design and Product
Development, Mälardalen University, Västerås, Sweden
Abstract: Production cells usually require a continuous supply of parts to be
assembled. Elaborate feeding mechanisms or a system of prepared pallets on
which the parts have exact positions are expensive and the feeding mechanism or
pallets must be modified if a variation of the product is to be produced. Such
solutions do not provide sufficient flexibility and increase production costs.
Today's requirements for smaller series and customized orders have higher
requirements on production cells. In this paper we show how flexible and adaptive production can be
achieved through methods and techniques from artificial intelligence by
introducing an "autonomous" production cell that integrates and manages its own
local buffer storage. The production cell is able to produce a number of
variants of the product with no time delay between different configurations.
The storage system, designated "Floating Storage", handles the local buffer
storage and guides the industrial robots to use available floor-space as
storage. The system also orders parts from the main storage as the buffer
storage approaches depletion. The parts arrive to the cell in standard
containers and a commercially available vision system is used to locate the
material. The prototype has been introduced in an assembly line at ABB.
