Innovative Human-Robot Collaboration for BMW/MINI Crash Can Assembly
Vložit
- čas přidán 13. 09. 2024
- This cell was designed to assist a human operator in reducing repetitive, non-ergonomic tasks that historically required fully manual assembly for the crash can structure located at the front of a BMW/MINI vehicle. Not only did the cell improve ergonomics, it also reduced overall cycle time for the operation.
This particular part is assembled from a combination of three aluminium extrusions, four pop rivets and a number of plastic clips.
In the past operators were required to complete all of these actions within a short time cycle. Moreover the process of securing the pop rivets was one that was not ergonomic for a human to complete as a continual process.
With this in mind the natural solution was to implement a collaborative robot cell, utilizing KUKA technology, allowing for a process to be developed where an operator could fully collaborate with the robot in close proximity.
The robot secures the first two rivets while the operator places the plastic clips into the extrusions on one side. The automated and manual process times balance, so the robot finish at the same time and switch positions to work on opposite sides securing rivets and placing clips.
The cell is fully linked to BMW's production system inside the factory and reports its status, number of rivets fixed etc. back to the engineers running the facility.
That is awesome :D
Hanzhen harmonic gear , industrial robot arm gear reducer, factory automation joint gear
So strange to see humans doing repetitive work like that
It's called work? A lot of jobs are just repetitive motions. That is why it's a huge deal robots are now being able to do human tasks.
While I understand it provides them an income, I look forward to the day when human beings can avoid such repetitive drudgery.
But is there any advantage for the company (MINI)?
Hi Leon, good question! As it indicates in the text at 00:14, this implementation overall reduced the cycle time for crash can assembly.
Manipulating a rivet puller like that by hand would get old in a hurry even if it was hanging from a reel; having the robot do it also allows for a heavier tool or one that doesn't need to be shaped to fit a worker's hands.