“Robot Cell” developed by the company making full use of the latest intelligent robot technology is a system in which operations conventionally conducted by human hands are replaced by robots such as mounting work piece materials on the machining fixture, washing after the process, unloading from the fixture, etc. The intelligent robots are equipped with “vision sensor” functioning like a human eye and “servo hand” playing role of a hand, so that, for the first time, robots are capable of mounting a variety of work piece materials accurately on the machining fixture. Using this system, the robot will conduct machining all by itself, taking work pieces from the stock in an automatic warehouse, placing them on the fixture and completing the process. Only one maintenance and inspection operator suffices for long hours of continuous operation, realizing substantial cost cutting compared to a conventional system.
Fanuc Ltd. http://www.fanuc.co.jp/
Established in 1972. In 1974, industrial robot was developed in-house and put into operation in the company. The head office was moved to the foot of Mt. Fuji in 1984. In addition to industrial robots, CNC (computer numerical control), servo motors, electric injection molding machines, etc are among their main product lineup.
The robot industry is one of the barometers by which demonstrate the high level of Japanese manufacturing is demonstrated. In the field of industrial robots that carries out assembly line operations in place of human labor forces, the robots “made in Japan” boast No.1 share in the world. In the midst of severe development competition the robot makers are engaging in day and night, one of the themes they are after is “how close robots can get to humans.” “Robot Cell” developed by the No.1 maker in the industry, Fanuc, and operating in its plants since April 2002, is integrated with intelligent robotic designs as a result of revolutionary technological innovation.
Mr. Yamaguchi explains, “It is an unprecedented type of robots equipped with ‘advanced eyes and flexible hands.’”
These robots are performing their work in a cutting operation plant for machining work pieces. Intelligent robots having arms grab work pieces automatically sent out from the warehouse and mount them on specially designed machining fixtures. The mounted work pieces are transferred to machining equipment for cutting operation into parts, and the machined products are unloaded by the robots again and stored back into the warehouse.
The machining process has been automated from the start, so the entire system requires only one operator for maintenance and inspection. On top of that, the system has realized continuous operation of 720 hours a month.
In the initial stage of the development started in April 2000, they went through the process of trial and error again and again, repeatedly thinking to themselves, ”Will we ever make it.” The most difficult part was to make the robots grab materials without misalignment.
“Machining work pieces come in various shapes, weights, and surface profiles, different from one another. It was a monumental task for a robot to get a grip of them tight and secure.”
Mr. Yamaguchi changed their thinking. Rather than designing the robot which would get a tight and steady hold of objects from the beginning, they thought of just having it “grab” them and then make adjustments. They adopted the “servo hand” which is capable of freely adjusting the intensity of the grabbing pressure. They also developed the “vision sensor” functioning like a human eye, which corrects the “grabbing condition” based on the visual information it acquires. The combination of these technological devises produced a system of mounting work pieces on the fixture in high precision.
The automated machining system of Fanuc has been advanced from the 1st generation in 1980’s to the 2nd generation of the 90’s, and to the Robot Cell system as the 3rd generation system.
Both the 1st and 2nd generation systems were revolutionary in those days, but the mounting of work pieces onto the machining fixture had to be done by human operators. However, the drastic improvement in the performance of machining systems ironically entailed the need to mobilize more labor forces for the mounting and unloading operation in order to maximize the improved production capacity.
The concept of Robot Cell was shaped on the initiative of the “onsite” operators who came face to face with such a predicament. On the basis of that, a joint development team was formed with the staff from Robot System Dept. for structuring the entire system as well as Robot Laboratory engaging in intelligent robot development.
“In actuality, the development was participated by engineers or supervisors who were involved in the machining onsite, dozens of them in total. Given that Robot Cell was completed drawing on the accumulated know-how of the past systems, it is a very crystallization of the history of technological development. We, the prize winners this time, are simply representing all those who were involved in the development until now.”
Eight Robot Cell systems are currently in operation in their plant, manufacturing robot parts, and so on. The machining cost of the latest system is roughly half the cost of the 1st generation system in which 10 fixtures were combined in a turntable to automatically feed to the machining equipment. From now on, they will put forth effort in sales activity for the developed intelligent robot systems.
“Whether you opt for labor-intensive strategy using cheap overseas labor forces or labor-saving strategy exercising your wisdom; the result of the game still remains to be seen.”
Great expectations are on them for the revival and further progress of Japanese monodzukuri.
Page Top
