Simulation-based planning and programming system for the assembly of products with a wide range of variants in collaboration between worker and robot

Abstract

In the field of robot-based assembly especially for products with a high number of variants, robot programming causes a large part of the product costs. The use of automation solutions for specialized production steps is particularly unprofitable for such small production batches. Human-robot collaboration (HRC), where tasks are allocated according to the respective skills, provides a good start-up point in automation of manual processes. However, robot programming remains a complex topic with many new programming possibilities during the last years, especially in the HRC sector. The concepts presented in this paper are intended to present a solution for a flexible assembly system, which is able to create a robot program and path automatically based on given information. In particular, this will be based on comprehensive product modeling and automatic process simulation.