Virtual reality based interactive automation of a robotic die grinding operation

A virtual reality based interactive specification system was built to interweave live video with several virtual tools that are graphic replicas of die grinders and other robotically handled tools of flexible manufacturing. This research explored the application of this system for virtual interactive automation--a new term to describe manufacturing where process set-up, modification, and error recovery are accomplished using simple directives such as "grind from there to there." Human skill and effort are saved for task conception and interaction while making use of machine intelligence for feature recognition and path planning in intermediate processes such as die and mold polishing, weld bead grinding, deburring and polishing of composite components. The virtual environment enables a human operator who may be knowledgeable about manufacturing or design, but, perhaps unskilled in manually programming robots to view the workpiece, select the patch that needs grinding, and simply point and direct robot to perform the operation.; Three methods of virtually designating die surfaces were developed. All three different ways of interactive specification within the interwoven workspace were found to be workable. The first, using a scriber, was found to help in specifying a region in a live video of the scene. The two camera mode of targeting alone without machine vision, was found to be adequate for simple cases and the 3-D graphic mode on top of the video patches was found to be the most powerful because full virtual representation is accomplished by a detailed video texture on an actual workpiece.; All the different modules were implemented in the CIM lab and tested for validity of the concepts. Overall, an encouraging conclusion can be reached from this exploratory development work undertaken in interactive virtual reality based manufacturing. Virtual reality appears to be a very practical and viable tool for achieving flexibility in die grinding, deburring and numerous other fields of manufacturing, which have traditionally used manual labor.