Flexible robotic assembly efforts at Ford Motor Company

Author

Gravel, David P. ; Newman, Wyatt S.

Author_Institution

Ford Adv. Manuf. Technol. Dev., Detroit, MI, USA

fYear

2001

fDate

2001

Firstpage

173

Lastpage

182

Abstract

Current robotic applications in automotive plants are limited primarily to material handling and spot welding operations. The Ford Advanced Manufacturing Technology Development Center (AMTD) has been pursuing force controlled robotic technology and adaptive learning techniques for teaching force controlled robots since 1996. The paper outlines efforts Ford has participated in to develop a force controlled robot assembly capability on Robotics Research, Kawasaki, FANUC, and MicroDexterity robot platforms. The paper also outlines the robotic learning progress made by Case Western Reserve University under a NIST ATP project called "Flexible Robotic Assembly for Powertrain Applications"

Keywords

Ford; assembling; automobile industry; force control; genetic algorithms; industrial robots; learning (artificial intelligence); neural nets; position control; Case Western Reserve University; FANUC robot platforms; Ford Advanced Manufacturing Technology Development Center; Ford Motor Company; Kawasaki robot platforms; MicroDexterity robot platforms; NIST ATP project; Robotics Research robot platforms; adaptive learning techniques; automotive plants; flexible robotic assembly; force controlled robotic technology; powertrain; Adaptive control; Automotive engineering; Educational robots; Force control; Manufacturing; Materials handling; Programmable control; Robot control; Robotic assembly; Spot welding;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Intelligent Control, 2001. (ISIC '01). Proceedings of the 2001 IEEE International Symposium on

Conference_Location

Mexico City

ISSN

2158-9860

Print_ISBN

0-7803-6722-7

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/ISIC.2001.971504

Filename

971504