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US 12,226,911 B2Granted
Reconfigurable, fixtureless manufacturing system and method
OwnerGeorge K. Ghaneminventor
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Systems and methods for reconfigurable, fixtureless manufacturing are provided. Material handling robots grasp and move parts within an assembly area to adjoin one another in a predetermined orientation. While the parts remain grasped and suspended within the assembly area, out of contact with any fixtures, work surfaces, jigs, and locators, a machine vision system performs an alignment scan to determine locations of datums on the parts which are transmitted to a controller for comparison against stored virtual datums for a subassembly comprising the joined parts. The location of the datums are transmitted to a joining robot which joins the parts to form the subassembly. The machine vision system performs an inspection scan of the datums on the parts after joining.
Claims20
A method for reconfigurable, fixtureless manufacturing, said method comprising:
- grasping, by way of a first material handling robot, a first part, wherein the first material handling device is adapted for programmable movement within an assembly area;
- moving, by way of the first material handling robot, the first part to a first location within the assembly area;
- grasping, by way of a second material handling robot, a second part, wherein the second material handling device is adapted for programmable movement within assembly area;
- moving, by way of the second material handling robot, the second part to a second location within the assembly area such that the second part adjoins the first part in a predetermined orientation;
- while said first part and said second part remain grasped by said first material handling robot and said second material handling robot, respectively, in a manner which otherwise suspends said first part and said second part within the assembly area and out of contact with any fixtures, work surfaces, jigs, and locators:
- performing an alignment scan, by way of the machine vision system, of the first part and the second part to determine locations of datums on the first part and the second part;
- transmitting the locations of the datums to a controller;
- comparing, by way of software, the location of the datums relative to stored virtual datums for a subassembly comprising the first part and the second part joined together;
- transmitting, by way of the controller, the location of the datums to a joining robot;
- joining the first part to the second part by way of the joining robot to form the subassembly;
- and
- performing an inspection scan, by way of the machine vision system, of the datums on the first part and the second part after joining the first part to the second part.
9 more elements
A reconfigurable manufacturing system, said system comprising:
- one or more material handling robots;
- a joining robot;
- a machine vision system positioned to view at least a portion of an assembly area, where said one or more material handling robots and said joining robot are located at said assembly area;
- one or more controllers comprising one or more processors, one or more electronic storage devices comprising software instructions, which when executed, configure the one or more processors to:
- command at least one of the one or more material handling robots to grasp a first part and move the first part within the assembly area in view of the machine vision system;
- command at least one of the one or more material handling robot to grasp said second part and move the second part within the assembly area in view of the machine vision system;
- while said first and second parts remain otherwise suspended within the assembly area and out of contact with any fixtures, work surfaces, jigs, and locators:
- command the machine vision system to perform an alignment scan of datums on the first part;
- command the machine vision system to perform an alignment scan of datums on the second part;
- compare the location of the datums from the alignment scan with virtual datums;
- command at least one of the one or more material handling robots to move the first part into an assembly position relative to the second part;
- and
- command the joining robot to join the first part to the second part to create a first subassembly.
10 more elements
A fixtureless, artificial intelligence (“AI”) assisted reconfigurable manufacturing system, said system comprising:
- material handling robots located at an assembly area;
- a machine vision component system comprising components positioned to view the assembly area;
- a controller comprising one or more processors, one or more electronic storage devices, and executable software instructions stored on the one or more electronic storage devices, which when executed, configure the one or more processors to:
- command the material handling robots to grasp different parts;
- command the material handling robots to move the grasped parts adjacent one another within the assembly area to form a partially completed subassembly;
- while the partially completed subassembly remains otherwise suspended within the assembly area and out of contact with any fixtures, work surfaces, jigs, and locators:
- perform, by way of the machine vision system, a scan of the partially completed subassembly to identify datums of the parts;
- reject the partially completed subassembly if the scan reveals one or more datum locations different from corresponding virtual datums by more than a margin of error;
- and
- join each of the gasped parts of the partially completed subassembly to one another to form a completed subassembly if the inspection scan reveals the locations of each of the datums to match or be within the margin of error of the locations of the corresponding virtual datums.
7 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.