SBIR Phase I: High-Throughput Agile Robotic Manufacturing System for Tile Mosaics

这个小型企业创新研究(SBIR)第一阶段项目将演示一个概念验证原型--高通量敏捷瓷砖马赛克制造系统的原型。几千年来，马赛克一直被证明是视觉上辉煌的源泉。尽管它在艺术和建筑方面很突出，但马赛克的手工设计和组装是困难的。这项第一阶段工作的目标是证明可编程高通量多头机器人瓷砖组装系统的可行性，以提高马赛克瓷砖的生产敏捷性。第一阶段的研究创新将把平行放置的好处与坚固耐用的大容量瓷砖墨盒结合在一起，从根本上减少瓷砖马赛克制造时间和相关的瓷砖马赛克组装成本。第一阶段的可衡量目标是在当前最先进的马赛克制造技术的基础上将生产能力提高5倍，同时提高瓷砖放置的精度。该系统将能够生产模板和大规模定制的马赛克。在第二阶段，原型将被提炼成商业级系统，与企业资源规划系统集成，并在Artaic？S的生产环境中投入使用。成功的第一阶段/第二阶段演示将显著降低制造马赛克的时间和成本，并可能彻底改变价值760亿美元的全球瓷砖行业。该项目的更广泛影响/商业潜力超出了艺术、设计和建筑领域。机器人自动化将降低马赛克的成本，并增加其在装饰公共、商业和住宅空间方面的社会影响。这项拟议的研究如果成功，将对敏捷制造产生重大影响。它将通过降低高通量灵活组装的成本，使其能够渗透到不可预见的市场。研究提出的解决方案将立即适用于客户和合作伙伴，并可能适用于医疗、制药、食品、消费品等并行行业，以及其他将受益于支持大规模定制的机器人敏捷制造的行业。敏捷的马赛克制造能力可以重振美国瓷砖制造业并创造就业机会。调查人员估计，生产率提高5倍将使突破价格达到19.99美元，比竞争对手低75%，并首次实现广泛的市场负担能力。

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project will demonstrate a proof-of-conceptprototype of a high-throughput agile tile mosaic manufacturing system. Mosaics have proven to be agreat source of visual splendor for thousands of years. Despite its prominence in art and architecture,mosaic is arduous to design and assemble by hand. The goal of this Phase I work is to prove thefeasibility of a programmable high-throughput multi-head robotic tile assembly system to enhance theproduction agility of mosaic tilings. Research innovation in Phase I will merge the benefits of paralleltile placement with robust high-capacity tile cartridges to radically decrease tile mosaic fabrication timeand associated tile mosaic assembly costs. The measurable objective of Phase I is a 5x increase inproduction throughput over current state-of-the-art mosaic manufacturing technology, while enhancingtile placement accuracy. The system will be capable of producing both template and ?mass customized?mosaics. In Phase II, the prototype will be refined into a commercial grade system, integrated with anEnterprise Resource Planning system, and placed into service in Artaic?s production environment.Successful Phase I/II demonstration will significantly lower the time and cost for manufacturing mosaicsand potentially revolutionize the $76B global tile industry.The broader impact/commercial potential of this project goes beyond art, design, and architecture.Robotic automation will lower the cost of mosaic and increase its societal impact in adorning public,commercial, and residential spaces. The proposed research, if successful, will have a significant impacton agile manufacturing. It will allow penetration into unforeseen markets by reducing the cost of highthroughput flexible assembly. The solution proposed by the research will be immediately applicable tocustomers and partners, and potentially useful in parallel industries such as medical, pharmaceutical, food, consumer products, and others that will benefit from robotic agile manufacturing enabled mass customization. Agile mosaic manufacturing capability could revitalize the U.S. tile manufacturing industry and create job opportunities. The investigators estimate that a 5x production rate increase will enable a breakthrough price of $19.99, 75% lower than the competition, and for the first time achieve broad market affordability.