Industrial Robot Application Engineering

Author: Yu Datta / et al.
Editor-in-Chief: Ge Zhiqi
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 1999-04-01
Features: Content Summary
"Industrial Robot Application Engineering" is one of the books in the Industrial Robot Series. The book is divided into 6 chapters, mainly including an overview of industrial robots and their application engineering, basic theories such as the structural mechanism, motion equations, workspace, and flexibility of robot manipulators, fundamental concepts and practical key technologies of industrial robot motion control, as well as teaching methods, peripheral control, and safety measures in robot applications. The book uses a significant amount of space to discuss the composition, design principles, and methods of robot workstations and production lines, as well as the selection and design of end-effectors, positioners, and robot mobile platforms with examples. This book is suitable for technical workers engaged in robot technology integration and on-site applications, and can also be used as teaching material for undergraduate and graduate students in mechanical and electrical engineering majors in colleges and universities.
Excerpt: Introduction
Since the introduction of industrial robots in the early 1960s, they have undergone more than 30 years of development and have been widely used in various industrial fields, becoming the main mechatronics equipment in the automation of manufacturing production. This chapter briefly introduces the origin and development, classification, applications, and examples of workstations and production lines composed of industrial robots, as well as some important issues in robot application engineering research.
1.1 Development and Classification of Industrial Robots
1.1.1 Industrial Robots
The term "robot" is the Chinese translation of "ROBOT." Due to the influence of film and television promotions and science fiction novels, people often imagine robots as mechanical and electronic devices that resemble humans in appearance. However, this is not the case, especially for industrial robots, which bear no resemblance to human appearance. According to national standards, an industrial robot is defined as "an automatically controlled, reprogrammable, multi-purpose manipulator that can be programmed for three or more axes. It can be fixed or mobile and is used in industrial automation applications." A manipulator is defined as "a machine whose mechanism is typically composed of a series of interconnected or relatively sliding components. It usually has several degrees of freedom to grasp or move objects (tools or workpieces)." Therefore, an industrial robot can be understood as a mechatronic device that mimics the functions of human arms, wrists, and hands; it can move any object or tool according to the time-varying requirements of spatial position and orientation to complete certain industrial production tasks. For example, gripping welding clamps or welding guns to perform spot welding or arc welding on the bodies of automobiles or motorcycles; handling die-cast or stamped parts or components; performing laser cutting; spraying; assembling mechanical parts and components, etc.
In 1951, the United States' Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) successfully developed the first numerical control milling machine, marking the beginning of a new era in the integration of mechanics and electronics. In 1954, American George C. Devol first proposed the concept of a "teaching/replay robot" in his patent application "Programmed Article Transfer." In 1958, the United States launched the world's first experimental prototype of an industrial robot. Soon after, Condec and Pulman companies merged to form Unimation, which produced the first industrial robot for mold casting production in 1961 (named Unimation). At the same time, the American AMF company also developed and produced another programmable universal machine, which was marketed with the slogan "Industrial Robot" (Industrial Robot). In April 1970, the first National Industrial Robot Conference was held at the University of Illinois. At that time, there were over 200 industrial robots used in automated production lines in the United States. Toyota and Kawasaki companies in Japan introduced American industrial robot technology in 1967. After absorbing, imitating, improving, and innovating, by 1980, robot technology had achieved great success and popularity in Japan, and "1980" was called the "Year of the Robot in Japan" by the Japanese. Today, Japan has the largest number of industrial robots (accounting for about 65% of the world's total) and manufacturing technology, both of which are world-leading. Other countries, such as those in Europe and Russia, are also vigorously developing robot technology. According to the statistics of the International Federation of Robotics (IFR), the number of robots in major countries around the world at the end of 1995 is shown in Table 1-1.