Tracking control in self-transfer-type automatic pouring robot considering automatic detection of unfilled molds

This paper is concerned with tracking control considering automatic detection of moving mold, as well as sloshing-suppression control in a self-transfer-type automatic pouring robot. In the system, in order that the pouring robot tracks the moving mold, 2-DOF control is constructed to the pouring robot. Then, in order to suppress the sloshing of the liquid in the ladle, feedback controllers are designed by hybrid shape approach. In the case that the mold position is previously unknown, the mold is detected and tracked by the laser sensor fitted to the pouring robot and the algorithm of Reference Generator proposed by us. Moreover, Reference Generator outputs the reference which satisfies the limitation of the velocity and acceleration in the robot. This paper especially focuses on Reference Generator. The effectiveness of the proposed control system is shown through experiments using an automatic pouring robot.