Engineering Faculty Internship: Improved Lead Time and Adaptability of Automated Assembly Systems

工程学院实习提供了主要的 研究人员有机会研究一个高容量的机器人 自动化系统，并与设计师和用户进行互动， 一个系统。 该系统是打印机组装系统， 每月组装10万台打印机。 之一 大批量（每台数十万台）中的关键问题 机械装配所需的时间是设计和 实施自动化系统和所需的额外时间， 将自动化生产提升到全量， 产品 这项研究关注的是了解这些因素 导致这些长的交货时间和缺乏灵活性， 自动装配系统。 在大学和 工业结合手头的系统研究， 导致周转时间长和缺乏 将确定灵活性，提出替代设计， 进行了概念验证实验。

The Engineering Faculty Internship provides the Principal Investigator an opportunity to study a high-volume robotic automation system and interact with the designers and users of such a system. This system is the printer assembly system designed to assemble on the order of 100,000 printers per month. One of the key problems in high volume (hundreds of thousands of units per month) mechanical assembly is the lead time required to design and implement automation systems and the additional time required to ramp automated production to full volume for a new or redesigned product. The research is concerned with understanding the factors contributing to these long lead times and lack of flexibility for automated assembly systems. On the basis of the collaboration of the university and industrial in conjunction with study of the system at hand, the major factors contributing to long lead times and lack of flexibility will be determined, alternative designs proposed, and proof-of-concept experiments conducted.