TOWARDS SHORT SERIES PRODUCTION: ROBOT–BASED FLEXIBLE MANUFACTURING WITH INTELLIGENT SENSING

This paper presents a sensor-based concept to carry out short series production with robots. Intelligent sensing extends our approach from earlier reported work towards truly flexible robotic production. A modern industrial robot provides an excellent, easy to adjust platform to flexible, reconfigurable production. In our concept we consider four main steps: sensing planning, motion planning, calibration and on-line adaptation. All these are critical steps in flexible robot –based manufacturing. These steps are explained in details with pilot examples cases in laboratory or industrial environments.