Robotics in today’s automotive manufacturing
Clarifying terminology used for automation and robotics The Oxford English Dictionary defines robots as “machines capable of automatically carrying out complex series of movements, esp. programmable.” Confusing matters is that this definition could describe everything from washing machines to CNC machine tools. Even the ISO 8373 definition of a robot as an “automatically controlled, reprogrammable, multipurpose manipulator, programmable in three or more axes” could describe a warehouse conveyor with vertical lift stations. However, such machines would never normally be classified as robots. The practical differentiator to remember is that machines built for a single [read: very clearly defined] use in a fixed location aren’t usually considered robots … at least not in industrial circles. For example, although a typical milling machine can run any number of complex programs to machine different parts, it’s designed to cut metal using rotary blades mounted in its spindle … and it’s likely to remain securely fixed in a single location for its entire service life. Sometimes, even these definitions are contradicted. For example, automated machines such as CNC machine tools are increasingly
Figure 2: In some cases, the distinction between robot and machine is based on how an automated design looks. Some classify articulated arms that resemble mechanized human arms as robots — and classify automated cartesian arrangements of linear slides (as the CT4 for small parts assembly and inspection) as machines. (Image source: IAI America Inc.)
flexible, with mill-turn centers performing the roles of both milling machines and lathes — and many such machines executing inspection and measurement tasks on parts with contact probes and laser scanners as well. Such machine tools may even be equipped to perform additive manufacturing. On the other hand, supposedly flexible industrial robots are often supplied as specialized models designed for a specific task such as paint spraying or welding … and may well spend their entire service life parked within one workcell on a production line.
The bottom line is that in the automotive industry today, automated systems classified as robots are indeed often expected to exhibit high flexibility — capable (with reconfiguration) of executing transport, sorting, assembly, welding, and painting tasks that may vary day to day. These industrial robotics are also expected to be relocatable to new areas in a plant — whether for redeployment as manufacturing systems and reconfigured or continually movable on seventh- axis linear tracks to service workcell arrays in a line.
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