Apparatus and method of the control of installing weather stripping in a door or like opening by a robot

A robot for installing a fixed length of weather stripping into a body opening, the robot in combination comprising:

• an arm movable in a predetermined path along at least two different axes;
• a powered pressure roller rotatively mounted on the end of the arm and moved by the arm for tracing the opening of the body and guiding and applying the fixed length, whereby the fixed length is affixed to the opening of the body, the pressure roller having a variable angular displacement rate;
• an idler roller supporting the fixed length and rotationably engaged therewith;
• calibration table means for storage of preprogrammed datums for the pressure roller angular displacement rate and weather stripping application rates for a plurality of locational segments along the opening during a weather stripping application cycle,
• means for delivering a signal representative of the calibration table means preprogrammed datums to the pressure roller;
• a pressure roller encoder for determining the actual angular displacement rate of the pressure roller and providing a signal representative thereof;
• an idler roller encoder means for determining the actual feed rate of the weather stripping and providing a signal representative thereof;
• means for determining the differential in the actual weather stripping feed rate of the weather strip from the preprogrammed datum in the calibrational tables for a first locational segment;
• means for signaling the pressure roller to modify the rate of angular displacement to integrally compensate within a later locational segment for the differential in the weather stripping feed rate in the prior first segment and any intervening locational segments;
• and
• state variable table means to store the prior differential in weather stripping feed rates of previous weather stripping application cycles in the first locational segments and means to change the preprogrammed datum for the pressure roller angular displacement rate to restore the weather stripping feed rate in the first locational segment to its preprogrammed datum, and wherein the change of the preprogrammed datum of the pressure roller angular displacement rate is based upon a rolling average of the feed rate differentials experienced in the first locational segment in a predetermined number of application cycles.

A method of utilizing a robot having an arm and a pressure roller having a variable rotational velocity to install fixed lengths of weather stripping into a body opening including generally straight sections and corner sections, by interacting and tracing the pressure roller along a straight section of the opening at a first linear speed and at a first rotational speed and interacting and tracing the pressure roller along a corner section at a second linear speed differing from the first linear speed and at a second rotational speed differing from the first rotational speed, whereby the fixed length is guided and affixed with the sections as the fixed length is installed into the body opening and the relative velocity of a point on a periphery of the pressure roller relative to a point on the body opening in the corner section is such that the weather stripping is longitudinally compressed in the corner section, the method comprising:

• storing preprogrammed datums for the pressure roller rotational velocity and weather stripping feed rate for a plurality of locational segments along the opening in a calibration table means;
• delivering a signal representative of the calibration table means preprogrammed datums to the pressure roller to command the pressure roller's rotational velocity;
• determining the actual rotational velocity of the pressure roller and the actual weather stripping feed rate;
• determining the differential in the feed rate of the weather stripping from the preprogrammed datum in the calibration table means for a first locational segment;
• and
• signaling the pressure roller to modify the rotational velocity to integrally compensate within a later locational segment for the differential in the first locational segment and any intervening locational segments.