Testing the vertical and cyber-physical integration of cognitive robots in manufacturing

Testing the vertical and cyber-physical integration of cognitive robots in manufacturing, Robotics and Computer Integrated Manufacturing 57 (2019)

In recent years, cognitive robots have started to find their way into manufacturing halls. However, the fullpotential of these robots can only be exploited through (a) an integration of the robots with the Manufacturing Execution System (MES), (b) a new and simpler way of programming based on robot skills, automated taskplanning, and knowledge modeling, and (c) enabling the robots to function in a shared human/robot workspace with the ability to handle unexpected situations. The STAMINA project has built a robotic system that meets these objectives for an automotive kitting application, which has also been tested, validated, and demonstratedin a relevant environment (TRL6). This paper describes the STAMINA robot system and the evaluation of thissystem on a series of realistic kitting tasks. The structure of the system, evaluation methodology, and experi-mental results, are presented along with the insights and experiences gained from this work.