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ROPULSI

ADVANCED ROBOTIC SYSTEM FOR SURFACE POLISHING IN INDUSTRY

Field
National
Date
01/09/2021 - 31/08/2024
Industry
  • Manufactura
  • Robotic systems
Budget
Funded by

Ministry of Science and Innovation. State Investigation Agency

Website
Video

PROJECT INFORMATION

DESCRIPTION

Detection and classification of defects in the context of quality control of car body surfaces together with the automatic repairing (sanding and polishing) with robots are inside what is considered Industry 4.0. In particular, for the automotive industry, the quality control of surfaces (i.e. from the leather covering sits, interiors, steering wheels, etc., until the metal of the body surface) is very important. Nowadays, there exist automatic industrial solutions for the defect detection task. However, the sanding and polishing of defects are still today being carried out manually by experts. Although in the literature it is possible to find some works facing the problem of defect polishing with robots, there are not ready for been installed at the industry because there are situations in which the operator might take control of the task, either to do it remotely or to show the robot how to perform it properly. Tasks in which there is contact between objects, such as surface treatment tasks (polishing, sanding, etc.), are difficult to program in advance to be performed autonomously by the robotic system, especially when the objects involved are moving.
The general objective of this project is to conduct the research and development required to achieve a specific industrial application: the industrial polishing of surfaces using a robot system with enough intelligence to assist the human operator to properly perform the task and to improve the quality, productivity and ergonomics of the process. Note that the results obtained with this project will be useful not only for polishing tasks but also for other industrial operations conducting surface treatments such as sanding, scuffing, deburring, finishing, grinding, etc.

Detection and classification of defects in the context of quality control of car body surfaces together with the automatic repairing (sanding and polishing) with robots are inside what is considered Industry 4.0. In particular, for the automotive industry, the quality control of surfaces (i.e. from the leather covering sits, interiors, steering wheels, etc., until the metal of the body surface) is very important. Nowadays, there exist automatic industrial solutions for the defect detection task. However, the sanding and polishing of defects are still today being carried out manually by experts. Although in the literature it is possible to find some works facing the problem of defect polishing with robots, there are not ready for been installed at the industry because there are situations in which the operator might take control of the task, either to do it remotely or to show the robot how to perform it properly. Tasks in which there is contact between objects, such as surface treatment tasks (polishing, sanding, etc.), are difficult to program in advance to be performed autonomously by the robotic system, especially when the objects involved are moving.
The general objective of this project is to conduct the research and development required to achieve a specific industrial application: the industrial polishing of surfaces using a robot system with enough intelligence to assist the human operator to properly perform the task and to improve the quality, productivity and ergonomics of the process. Note that the results obtained with this project will be useful not only for polishing tasks but also for other industrial operations conducting surface treatments such as sanding, scuffing, deburring, finishing, grinding, etc.

Technological capabilities

Robotics
Task automation