The role of intelligent robots in flexible assembly

Abstract

In order to be able to justify the use of intelligent robotic stations in the flexible assembly, the answers to the following questions must be available: (a) performance specifications of the intelligent manipulator matching the flexibility potential of the whole assembly process; (b) the relative productivity gain of the intelligent robotic station taking as the reference the gripper operated manipulator; (c) the impact of the increased local (station) productivity on the system performance. In this paper, we outline a methodology by which the answers to the above questions can be derived once the design parameters of a flexible assembly line have been given. © 1990.