FEATURE Machine Building & Frameworks y
Figure 3:
Ceiling-mounted “underpass” robots utilise factory-floorspace efficiently
conventional machines must reduce their speed resulting in longer tact times. Benefi ting from long experience,
rooted in early industrial robots created to automate high-volume assembly of motorcycle parts in the 1970s, Yamaha has been able to develop its robots to a high level of sophistication with innovative features such as the TRANSERVO that enables stepper motors to deliver both high speed and high torque. Other features that integrators value to help simplify solution-design challenges include low-maintenance lubrication and eff ective contaminant barriers, innovative high-rigidity mechanical parts that ensure superior accuracy even under high pressing forces, and widespread use of position resolvers which are more robust and reliable than traditional optical position detectors. With a variety of control systems to choose from, integrators can confi gure an aff ordable solution to satisfy the major automation challenge while also leaving the pathway clear for future adaptability and scaling. Simple control units for basic positioning and driving allow single-axis robots to be easily controlled with coordinate pointing or pulse-train input, to minimise programming. On the other hand, multi-axis controllers can be used to handle one or more single- or twin-access robots simultaneously. Up to four 4-axis controllers can be linked in master-slave confi guration to manage as many as 16 axes and consolidate control in one program written in Yamaha’s robot language, which is an extended version of BASIC.
Building up wconfidence Success in a fi rst automation project often encourages operators to scale or augment their systems for greater productivity or
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end-of-line quality. Introducing machine vision is a popular upgrade, although the technology typically demands specialised knowledge and traditional setup processes that can be complicated and time-consuming. Challenges commonly encountered include establishing communications between the vision system, the robot and other subsystems such as tracking. Additional obstacles include calibrating the vision system and ensuring accurate registration of workpiece data. Yamaha set out to make robot vision easier when creating its RCXiVY2+ system. In a typical robot-vision system, the cameras are connected to a dedicated vision processor, which then communicates with the main system controller via a serial data link. In RCXiVY2+, the image processing, lighting control and processing of the conveyor- tracking data are all handled within the robot program, using dedicated vision instructions created by Yamaha and added to the extended BASIC instruction set. The vision instruction set simplifi es component search and tracking, and reduces search times by up to 50%. Faster search enhances part detection at high conveyor speeds, enabling improved pickup and lower tact times. With hardware including a vision
board featuring a GigE camera interface, a lighting-control board and tracking board easily installed directly in the RCX3 series multi-axis robot controller, many integration issues are bypassed and compatibility with peripherals is assured. Also, because the vision is managed from the robot program, there is no need to create a coordinate-conversion routine. In addition, Yamaha’s integrated system boosts performance by eliminating the delays experienced with conventional vision as the camera data passes through a separate vision processor and then to the robot controller. To accelerate setting up the system, a simple calibration process aided by a
wizard helps quickly align the camera coordinates, and a graphical tool reduces workpiece registration to three easy steps by assisting with image capture, contour setting, and registration of the detection position. Overall, the setup time is about 80% faster than with a conventional machine-vision system (Figure 4). When in action, a powerful image-edge
search engine enhances part detection. The system can detect screws and washers that are securing parts, detect items in a package or on a printed circuit board, check drilled holes and count objects such as bottles in a pallet or electronic components. The camera’s DVI-I output lets users analyse the search status at any time, and users can register up to 254 additional custom parts for automatic detection. RCXiVY2+ cameras can be mounted in fi xed locations above and/ or below the workpiece, or on the robot. When mounted on the robot, camera coordinates are automatically adjusted to correct for movement.
The RCXiVY2+ system also introduces a new approach to image processing known as “blob detection”, which can recognise objects of irregular shapes up to 10 times faster than traditional edge-detection methods. This enhances picking, presence recognition and high-speed counting of multiple workpieces and is particularly eff ective with items such as foodstuff s and clothing, thereby expanding the possible range of applications for robot vision. The system also recognises overlapped pieces, excluding them from the search target.
Starting the journey The journey into robotic process automation can be easy and non-disruptive if tackled in the right way, such as by replacing infl exible conveyors or space-hungry indexing tables with programmable linear robots. As confi dence rows, automation can be extended to other processes and production lines, and upgrades such as machine vision can be added, delivering an ever-increasing return on investment.
Figure 4: RCXiVY2+ helps users become productive more quickly
w CONTACT:
Yamaha Factory Automation (FA Section)
https://fa.yamaha-motor-im.de/
Automation | October 2020
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