scholarly journals Industrial Robots Fuel Cell Based Hybrid Power-Trains: A Comparison between Different Configurations

Electronics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (12) ◽  
pp. 1431
Author(s):  
Germán Andrés Ramos ◽  
Tomàs Montobbio de Pérez-Cabrero ◽  
Carles Domènech-Mestres ◽  
Ramon Costa-Castelló

Electric vehicles are becoming more and more popular. One of the most promising possible solutions is one where a hybrid powertrain made up of a FC (Fuel Cell) and a battery is used. This type of vehicle offers great autonomy and high recharging speed, which makes them ideal for many industrial applications. In this work, three ways to build a hybrid power-train are presented and compared. To illustrate this, the case of an industrial robot designed to move loads within a fully automated factory is used. The analysis and comparison are carried out through different objective criteria that indicate the power-train performance in different battery charge levels. The hybrid configurations are tested using real power profiles of the industrial robot. Finally, simulation results show the performance of each hybrid configuration in terms of hydrogen consumption, battery and FC degradation, and dc bus voltage and current regulation.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Juan Sebastian Toquica ◽  
José Maurı́cio Motta

Abstract This paper proposes a methodology for calibration of industrial robots that uses a concept of measurement sub-regions, allowing low-cost solutions and easy implementation to meet the robot accuracy requirements in industrial applications. The solutions to increasing the accuracy of robots today have high-cost implementation, making calibration throughout the workplace in industry a difficult and unlikely task. Thus, reducing the time spent and the measured workspace volume of the robot end-effector are the main benefits of the implementation of the sub-region concept, ensuring sufficient flexibility in the measurement step of robot calibration procedures. The main contribution of this article is the proposal and discussion of a methodology to calibrate robots using several small measurement sub-regions and gathering the measurement data in a way equivalent to the measurements made in large volume regions, making feasible the use of high-precision measurement systems but limited to small volumes, such as vision-based measurement systems. The robot calibration procedures were simulated according to the literature, such that results from simulation are free from errors due to experimental setups as to isolate the benefits of the measurement proposal methodology. In addition, a method to validate the analytical off-line kinematic model of industrial robots is proposed using the nominal model of the robot supplier incorporated into its controller.


Author(s):  
Liangfei Xu ◽  
Guijun Cao ◽  
Fuyuan Yang ◽  
Jianqiu Li ◽  
Minggao Ouyang

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (13) ◽  
pp. 4619 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matteo Bottin ◽  
Silvio Cocuzza ◽  
Nicola Comand ◽  
Alberto Doria

The stiffness properties of industrial robots are very important for many industrial applications, such as automatic robotic assembly and material removal processes (e.g., machining and deburring). On the one hand, in robotic assembly, joint compliance can be useful for compensating dimensional errors in the parts to be assembled; on the other hand, in material removal processes, a high Cartesian stiffness of the end-effector is required. Moreover, low frequency chatter vibrations can be induced when low-stiffness robots are used, with an impairment in the quality of the machined surface. In this paper, a compliant joint dynamic model of an industrial robot has been developed, in which joint stiffness has been experimentally identified using a modal approach. First, a novel method to select the test configurations has been developed, so that in each configuration the mode of vibration that chiefly involves only one joint is excited. Then, experimental tests are carried out in the selected configurations in order to identify joint stiffness. Finally, the developed dynamic model of the robot is used to predict the variation of the natural frequencies in the workspace.


Author(s):  
Cong Wang ◽  
Chung-Yen Lin ◽  
Masayoshi Tomizuka

Vision guided robots have become an important element in the manufacturing industry. In most current industrial applications, vision guided robots are controlled by a look-then-move method. This method cannot support many new emerging demands which require real-time vision guidance. Challenge comes from the speed of visual feedback. Due to cost limit, industrial robot vision systems are subject to considerable latency and limited sampling rate. This paper proposes new algorithms to address this challenge by compensating the latency and slow sampling of visual feedback so that real-time vision guided robot control can be realized with satisfactory performance. Statistical learning methods are developed to model the pattern of target's motion adaptively. The learned model is used to recover visual measurement from latency and slow sampling. The imaging geometry of the camera and all-dimensional motion of the target are fully considered. Tests are conducted to provide evaluation from different aspects.


Author(s):  
Mohsen Moradi Dalvand ◽  
Saeid Nahavandi

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyse teleoperation of an ABB industrial robot with an ABB IRC5 controller. A method to improve motion smoothness and decrease latency using the existing ABB IRC5 robot controller without access to any low-level interface is proposed. Design/methodology/approach – The proposed control algorithm includes a high-level proportional-integral-derivative controller (PID) controller used to dynamically generate reference velocities for different travel ranges of the tool centre point (TCP) of the robot. Communication with the ABB IRC5 controller was performed utilising the ABB PC software development kit. The multitasking feature of the IRC5 controller was used to enhance the communication frequency between the controller and the remote application. Trajectory tracking experiments of a pre-defined three-dimensional trajectory were carried out and the benefits of the proposed algorithm were demonstrated. The robot was intentionally installed on a wobbly table and its vibrations were recorded using a six-degrees-of-freedom force/torque sensor fitted to the tool mounting interface of the robot. The robot vibrations were used as a measure of the smoothness of the tracking movements. Findings – A communication rate of up to 250 Hz between the computer and the controller was established using C# .Net. Experimental results demonstrating the robot TCP, tracking errors and robot vibrations for different control approaches were provided and analysed. It was demonstrated that the proposed approach results in the smoothest motion with tracking errors of < 0.2 mm. Research limitations/implications – The proposed approach may be employed to produce smooth motion for a remotely operated ABB industrial robot with the existing ABB IRC5 controller. However, to achieve high-bandwidth path following, the inherent latency of the controller must be overcome, for example by utilising a low-level interface. It is particularly useful for applications including a large number of short manipulation segments, which is typical in teleoperation applications. Social implications – Using the proposed technique, off-the-shelf industrial robots can be used for research and industrial applications where remote control is required. Originality/value – Although low-level control interface for industrial robots seems to be the ideal long-term solution for teleoperation applications, the proposed remote control technique allows out-of-the-box ABB industrial robots with IRC5 controllers to achieve high efficiency and manipulation smoothness without requirements of any low-level programming interface.


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