Robotic Autonomous Laser Processing for agile High volume production (RALPH)

RALPH的目标是开发一种自主激光微加工系统，该系统具有完全自动化的零件处理，但灵活且易于重新配置，适用于不同设备外形的大规模定制生产。尽管激光制造是一个快速的过程（典型的激光钻孔/切割时间以秒为单位），但由于手动零件处理，每个零件的生产周期长达几分钟，阻碍了在高价值微电子，动力总成或医疗设备制造中进一步采用先进的光子学生产技术，导致无竞争力的高激光加工成本和英国全球市场份额的损失。挑战是使用传统的、经济实惠的、但精度较低的机器人拾取和放置技术来满足激光加工（5 m）的严格零件定位精度要求。我们将开发一种集成激光、光学、6轴机器人和机器视觉的技术解决方案，用于各种样品形状因子（晶圆、圆柱、圆盘）的零件处理，该解决方案基于智能零件配准和通过高精度光学扫描轴调整激光束定位。

RALPH's objective is to develop an autonomous laser micromachining system with fully auto-mated part handling, but agile and easily reconfigurable, suitable for mass customisation pro-duction of different device formfactors. Despite laser manufacturing being a rapid process (typical laser drill/cut time in sec), long production cycle times of several min/part due to manual part handling, hinder further uptake of advanced photonics-based production technologies in high value microelectronics, powertrain or medical device manufacturing, resulting in uncom-petitively high laser process costs and loss of global market share for the UK. The challenge is to satisfy the stringent part positioning accuracy requirements for laser processing ( 5 m) using conventional, affordable, but less accurate robotic pick and place technology. We will develop a technical solution integrating the laser, optics, 6-axis robot and machine vision for parts hand-ling of various sample formfactors (wafer, cylinder, disc) based on intelligent part registration and adaptation of laser beam positioning through high precision optical scan axes.