DEVELOPMENT OF A FLEXIBLE AND ADAPTIVE ROBOTIC CELL FOR SMALL BATCH MANUFACTURING

The de-ve-lop-ment of the ma-nu-fac-tu-ring pro-ces-ses is evol-ving in pa-ral-lel with the emer-gen-ce of new tec-hno-lo-gi-es. Un-til now, ro-bot tec-hno-logy has been very clo-sely lin-ked to the ma-nu-fac-tu-ring of lar-ge se-ri-es, com-monly lin-ked to Lar-ge En-ter-pri-ses (LE), due to the need for com-plex po-si-ti-o-ning to-ols and highly skil-led ro-bot ope-ra-tors.The-se cir-cum-stan-ces re-sult in ex-tra costs if a chan-ge in the pro-duct to be pro-ces-sed oc-curs, which can not be as-su-med for small batches and thus pre-sents a tec-hno-lo-gi-cal and eco-no-mi-cal bar-ri-er to ro-bo-tics. To ena-ble ro-bo-tics to pe-ne-tra-te in this kind of de-man-ding mar-ket, a new ap-pro-ach is de-scri-bed that de-fi-nes a new con-cept of hyper-fle-xi-ble cell.