Matching robots to the workplace

Abstract

Robotizing a process might mean anything from the purchase of a single robot to replace one man at an existing machine to the design and implementation of a complex manufacturing system using several robots, all controlled from a central computer. Even in the very simplest case, there is more to consider than choosing the best robot for the job, asking the existing man to step aside, and setting the robot to work in place of him. In this chapter some of the practical aspects of the robot-to-machine interface are examined. While it is soon found that special provisions must be made to compensate for the robot’s inability to see and feel, there are many opportunities for cashing in on some of the non-human — even superhuman — properties of our mechanical imitators. Intelligent production engineering and system design should seek to explore ways and means for taking full advantage of the robot’s capacity for working continuously, accurately, and reliably under hostile conditions — not forgetting that work can some times be arranged with one robot tending two or more machines in a work sequence that would quickly have a human completely worn out.