Real-time monitoring and control system of an industrial robot with 6 degrees of freedom for grinding and polishing of aspherical mirror
Aspherical mirrors have higher performance and lighter weight than spherical mirrors. However, it is not easy to process, measure, and evaluate their shapes. In particular, large aperture aspherical mirrors used in satellites require high precision and take a long time to process. The conventional process is machined using a computer numerical control with a gantry structure. However, there is a disadvantage that it is difficult to process complex shapes due to lack of degrees of freedom. In order to overcome these problems, we developed a shape processing system using an industrial robot with 6 degrees of freedom. The system consists of toolpath generation program, real-time robot monitoring, and control program. We have verified the performance of the developed system through simulation software provided by the robot manufacturer as well as actual robot operation.
Design of Flexible Cyber-Physical Production Systems Architecture for Industrial Robot Control
Current industrial needs are focused in the generation of agile, flexible, and customizable manufacturing systems. To be able to cope with the high production diversities and the frequent demand changes of the market, enterprises tend to implement modular manufacturing processes. In this type of intelligent processes, robotic cells are usually integrated to perform complex manipulation and transportation tasks. New generation industrial robots are built incorporating special processing units which can operate under embedded software. This characteristic allows robots to be compatible with the automation standard IEC-61499. It proposes a generic distributed architecture for the generation of flexible and modular production systems, with the requirement of using controller devices which can work under an embedded software. This paper proposes the development of a low-cost robotic controller compatible with IEC-61499. The system is based on the use of a robotic cell to wield elements in a modular manufacturing line. The cell is composed by a YouBot Robotic Arm operating under the control of the development board Raspberry Pi 3B.
Tunable micro-aspherical lens manipulated by 2D electrostatic forces
A novel method to manipulate or fabricate an aspherical micro lens from photo curable polymer is proposed. Two dimensional forces, produced by electro-wetting and electrostatic forces, were applied to shape polymer liquid from a hemisphere into a paraboloid or near cone shape. As a result, the Strehl ratio for this lens can be varied from 0.0076, in the spherical shape, into 0.8362, in the near paraboloid shape, suitable for optical applications desiring lenses with high numerical apertures and resolution.