Abstract

The goal of this research is to study, analyse, fabricate and design pick and place  a Robotic Arm on a  Conveyer Belt system for sorting and moving of metal scraps  which performs the operation of picking and placing the object from one place to another place.

As we know, the production is increasing day by day as the time is passing and it has become a priority of every company to speed up their production rate along with profit. When production occurs on a large scale then problem arrives in the material handling system because of so many factors like counting of products, removing the defective piece etc. due to these reasons manufacturing units are found to be more interested towards automation via robots for their work.

The pick and place robot on a Conveyor Belt system is one of the automation technology in the manufacturing zone which is planned and designed in a way that it removes the faults and intervention by humans to get more accurate work, it accelerates the operation of picking up and placing the items to their required locations and automating this procedure helps to escalate the production rates and profit.

It has sensors which sort the products according to its colour and one of the sensor counts the product on the conveyor belt. These type of robots are installed in various fields where some repetitive process occurs such as in bottle filling industry, packing industry, brick manufacturing plant, car assembly lines and different construction sites etc.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

 

1.0 Background        

Today, robotics has become a wide-ranging field of work then it was over the last few years, dealing with research and growth in various multidisciplinary areas, like kinematics and dynamics, planning system, control, sensing, programming languages, and artificial intelligence.

At present all the manufacturing industries are going towards innovative ideas, method, and techniques for better result and for the growth of industry. Because when in old days production was at small scale it was possible to perform these tasks manually by labour but present due to increase in production it is not possible to do it manually and it also increases the labour expenditure. So the installation of these types of robots has become a necessity.

As we see, the automation is increasing in the world day by day to make our lives trouble-free, the elementary essence of work is modifying. Requirement of manpower in industries has decreased remarkably due to the reason that most of the tasks are now being done by machines.

Simply we can state that human arms are being replaced by robotic arms. Consequently robotic arm perform the repetitive work which was done manually before their installation. And also these automated arms gives better outcome, lessen the injury and guides industry further.

Most eminently assisting them has also helped in making operation more efficient, organized and less noisy. Attainability of robotic arms for tedious and threatening work has re-strained human hands for critical and safer work.

1.2 Problem Statement

The thesis examines the compelling design of a robotic arm on a conveyor Belt that is,  a pick and place machine and auto feeding mechanism that improves the safety of the workers. The main intension of designing this pick and place robotic arm on a Conveyor Belt is there will be no need of manual operation of picking the items  form stack to desired positions.

For example the workload in industries  is distributed amongst different  workers and thus is very taxing work. One of the issues is the labor force used to move and sort this items faces difficulties in completing the mission because of the heavy weight and the nature of the sharpness of the metal involves.

Assuming large growth in future production; moving and stacking these items  will become an increasingly difficult task requiring more and more workers. The report is aims to replace the current system that uses few workers in completing this process with a mechanical robotic arm. The arm hopes to have characteristics such as the ability to sort, move, and stack the cans, metal and different items.

Additionally, it hopes to accomplish faster performance and efficiency in completing the task. Consistency is also important in the decision making process ahead. The robotic arm should be able to operate without human interaction and be able to work 24/7.

1.3 Objectives

• Designing, Modelling and Simulation of the pick and place mechanism. We need to have a time study between currently undergoing manual operation and newly designed automated operation.
• The ability of using this arm in dangerous or poisonous environments to do some work depending on human arm orders.
• The frequency of this operator, it’s repeatability, lifetime etc. are to be found out.
• The choice of the end effector, it’s design and analysis should be carried out and documented
• The main objective in completing this project is to design a robot that will aid  in
• the process of sorting and stacking out compressed can, metals scrap items.
• Design and fabricate at least five DOF robot arm with gripper (end effector) that can be used for demonstrative and educational purposes in addition it will be able to hold thing or repairing thing since it will have a wide work envelope.

1.3.0 Innovative Objectives

• Be able to analyse the properties and effectiveness of different end of arm tooling for the robotic arm.
• Exploring new mechanisms to carry and stack the cans, metals
• Including the use of robotic arms.
• To weigh the advantages of different robot arm designs, and eventually decide on one that best suits the situation.
• To research modular design, so that the robotic arm can be easily upgraded to meet the changing production needs.
• The robotic arm will be valuable to companies not only for moving and stacking, but with have flexible viability completing other tasks as well.
• Equipping the arm with barcode scanner, storage facilities and warehouses can use this robot to sort boxes and stack them on the right shelf
• With proper alterations in programming and hardware, the arm can be used to sort and stack the boxes of cans, metals, items produced from the production line in factories.
• To design a moving platform for the arm, and with proper alterations in programming and hardware, it can replace the human operated fork-lifer cart. As a result, the whole process of pick up waste items and carrying to truck can be fully automated, saving even more human labour.

1.4 Research Question

1. How can we automate the process of leading distribution of picking up parts or items and placing them in other locations ?
2. How can we design the pick and place robotic arm on a Conveyor belt to meet the requirements of the innovative handling and feeding Technology?