Assessment of a Novel Position Verification Sensor to Identify and Isolate Robot Workcell Health Degradation

Area of Science:

• Robotics
• Manufacturing Engineering
• Industrial Automation

Background:

• Manufacturing relies heavily on sophisticated robotics, necessitating strategic maintenance programs to control costs.
• Assessing robot workcell health is crucial for optimizing maintenance, but current data streams are often voluminous and complex.
• Existing data sources include controller data, maintenance logs, and quality metrics, which can be overwhelming.

Purpose of the Study:

• To introduce a novel test method and companion sensor for assessing robot workcell health.
• To provide an additional, unique data stream to simplify or enhance health assessments.
• To verify the performance and measurement capabilities of the developed companion sensor.

Main Methods:

• Development of a new test method and a companion sensor for robot workcell health assessment.
• Verification testing of the companion sensor to evaluate its performance.
• Analysis of preliminary results from the verification test process.

Main Results:

• The verification test process was effective in quantifying the sensor's measurement capability.
• Preliminary results indicate the sensor's performance during verification testing.
• Lessons learned highlight the need to address test process anomalies in future efforts.

Conclusions:

• The developed sensor and test method offer a promising approach to robot workcell health assessment.
• This innovation can potentially reduce data collection and analysis burdens for manufacturers.
• Further refinement of the test process is recommended to fully realize the sensor's capabilities.