Mobile heavy duty manipulators for cooperative handling of large-scale products

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The production of sophisticated products, including in the energy generation, mobility and construction industries, is characterized by an increase in product variants and shortened innovation cycles with simultaneous cost and quality pressure. There is, therefore, a need for flexible automation to meet both the increase in demand and the quality requirements in the high-wage location. One approach to increasing the flexibility of automated assembly of demanding, usually large components is to use mobile heavy-duty manipulators instead of conventional fixed special-purpose machines. For many years, the machining and assembly of demanding components have been a focus of research in the Model-based Systems group at the Chair of Production Metrology and Quality Management (MQ) at the WZL of RWTH Aachen University. The state of research is the control of complex handling systems utilizing cooperating robots. Within model-based control systems, the deformation behavior of the components, the dynamic behavior of the robot kinematics, and measurement system influences are taken into account. Wireless communication and edge cloud systems are part of the previous research work on mobile manipulators. However, fundamental findings from this work cannot be easily transferred to automated handling and assembly of sophisticated components. One reason for this is the antiproportional stiffness increases of mobile manipulators compared to the resulting process forces when handling large components. This results in functional deviations of the assembled components and restrictions in the usability of the systems. One research focus of the Chair of Individualized Construction Production (IP), Faculty of Architecture at RWTH Aachen University, is innovative machines and complex robot-based systems in construction production. To create an environment that enables efficient, individualized batch size one production, new and user-friendly methods and flexible production systems are introduced in the construction industry. The combination of flexible robotics with intuitive methods for design-oriented process planning and robot programming enables innovative manufacturing processes in construction production.To expand the range of applications of mobile manipulators, fundamental work is needed in modeling the interaction of components and mobile robots, highly redundant motion planning, and autonomous process planning. Thus, two mobile heavy-duty manipulators consisting of an industrial robot with a payload ≥ 240 kg and reach ≥ 3,000 mm each on a mobile, area-moving self-propelled platform are requested as infrastructure for such projects. The large-scale device is further equipped with additional sensor technology and wireless communication technology.