Adaptive control for agile automatic welding in small batches

小批量生产往往是高度劳动密集型的，在高工资国家，中小型企业的成本很高，极大地影响了它们的竞争力。虽然完全自动化是大规模生产的明显解决方案，但这种自动化系统的设置往往过于复杂，对于小批量的生产过程来说成本过高。事实上，自动化系统的设置、处理和维护将变得具有挑战性，并且可能会使该过程的自动化所带来的任何经济收益化为乌有。适用于焊接工艺，广泛应用于许多中小型企业。因此，半自动系统可能是最佳折衷方案。诺瓦克技术公司最近开发了一种协作式焊接机器人，通过在同一工作场所与工人进行物理互动来帮助工人执行焊接任务。协作机器人(Cobot)不是针对替代者，而是支持工人，它允许初级工人执行通常由高技能焊工完成的任务。此外，低技能焊工的生产能力可能会增加，从而提高生产率。 在加拿大-德国2-2方案的主持下，该项目的目标是为小批量协作焊接机器人开发一种智能、高度适应性、灵活的控制系统。该系统将与弗劳恩霍夫机电系统设计研究所(IEM)合作，在NovarcTechnologies的协作焊接机器人上实施，并在现代工业技术有限公司(MIT)进行测试。

The production of small batch sizes tends to be highly labor-intensive and in high-wage countries results in significant costs for small and medium sized enterprises, dramatically affecting their competitiveness. While complete automation is an obvious solution for mass production, the setup of such automation systems tends to be overly complex and cost-prohibitive for production processes of small batch sizes. Indeed, the setup, handling and maintenance of the automation system then becomes challenging and may annihilate any economic gain resulting for the automation of the process. The applies to the welding process, widely used in many small and medium enterprises. Hence a semi-automated system might optimal compromise. Novarc Technologies recently developed a collaborative welding robot that assists workers in performing the welding task by physically interacting with them in the same workplace. Not aiming at a replacement but rather supporting the worker the collaborative robot (cobot) allows a junior worker to perform tasks that usually are done by highly skilled welders. Furthermore, a lower-skilled welder's throughput might be increased resulting in increased productivity. The goal of this project, under the auspices of the Canada - Germany 2+2 programme is the development of an intelligent, highly adaptive, agile control system for a cooperative welding robot for small batches. The system is to be implemented on Novarc Technologies' collaborative welding robot in collaboration with Fraunhofer Institute for Mechatronic Systems Design IEM (IEM) and to be tested at Moderne Industrie Technik GmbH & Co. KG (MIT).