System for the production control and automatic packaging of plastic air sleeve guides

This paper describes the functioning of a manufacturing cell, in which several complex systems have been joined, such as: a robot, a computer vision system, and a lathe. To allow communication between these systems in an organised manner, diverse technologies have been used, varying from a field bus to the intranet of the company. The robot takes the role of master, coordinating the functioning of the rest of subsystems. The computer vision takes charge calculating the position and orientation of the pieces of injected plastic and communicating them to the robot. The robot gathers the pieces and takes them up to the lathe. Once the process of the lathe has finished, the robot gathers again the piece and deposits it in the packaging system. The cell is endowed with the possibility of remote adjustment and monitoring across the company's intranet. The cell's functioning conditions can be modified from the laboratory, to assure that the pieces made are within the quality limits specified by the clients.