A low cost robot system for stylus and workpiece manipulation in computer aided quality control

Abstract

The past twenty years have seen a continued increase in importance of computer aided measurement techniques as a means to control modern production engineering. Industrial robots are used for manipulating workpieces for inspection in CMM surroundings especially when high flexibility and low cost solutions are demanded as it is typical for small industrial plants. The prototype of a measuring cell with the goal to achieve the fexible automation of measuring tasks are drawn up at the Vienna University of Technology. A local area network of personal computers is linked to a small high precision CMM and to other measuring devices. The measuring cell also includes new developed and constructed handling systems for workpiece manipulating and automatic stylus exchanging. There are links to data banks for production, construction and quality data. The development of this system and the experiences gained are described.