Human-free robotic automation of industrial operations

This paper is a result of the university-industry collaboration between ITMO University and Thermex. A subject of this cooperative investigation is robotic automation of industrial operations in the sense of organizing a cyber-physical system and reducing the human factor from the production. Tasks of a technological process considered in the paper are welding, transporting and polishing. They are simulated on the basis of the laboratory of the Department of Control Systems and Informatics. Robots used in this study are Mitsubishi MELFA RV-3SDB, KUKA youBot and Kawasaki FS06N. Three control levels are highlighted in the paper. There is the strategic level at the top. Its main part is a central control software based on MATLAB used to set up a network and coordinate robots between the operations. Control of a separate robot corresponds to the tactic level. Finally, the local level is assigned to control of actuators and get data from sensors.