Robot Guidance System

Overview
Acieta needed a way to guide a Fanuc M-2000ia heavy lifting industrial robot in the placement of materials weighing up to 300kg within a tolerance of 0.38mm. Robots have a good repeatability of motion, but the accuracy of location can be anywhere from 1-5mm. ATT Metrology developed software that used an Leica Absolute AT401 laser tracker to measure the J6 end effec-tor location on the robot and communicate adjustments to the robot to guide the material placement at the desired tolerance.

Solution
The ATT Metrology application software interfaces with SpatialAnalyzer® to operate the laser tracker and capture measure-ments of the J6 end effector. It also monitors location data sent from the robot over a PLC controller. The “delta” of the loca-tion frames reported by the robot and the measured J6 position are communicated back to the robot to guide it to a common reference frame.

The application presents an MMI to operators that allows them to monitor and control the process. It continually updates the display to show the relative position of the J6 end effector as it moves to each location while being measured by the laser tracker.

Results
ATT Metrology was able to use their expertise in metrology systems and software development to deliver a solution within the time and budget needed by Acieta. We were able to deliver accuracy at the desired tolerances and within the cycle time constraints needed to support a production assembly line for their customer.