The Challenge

Schlage Lock Company required a method to rapidly teach a complex trajectory defining the polishing path. The software was to be applicable to an entire family of door handles. Teaching points for a polishing path is time consuming and tedious.

ACG solution

The ACG polishing module was developed specifically to accelerate the process of programming robots for polishing tasks. Using the software, the robotic system was polishing a newly taught door handle in two days. The user teaches a few control points manually and the software then generates a smooth continuous path that links all the control points together. Both arc and line motions are created automatically. Additionally B-spline curves are generated automatically from a few control points. 100 points can thus automatically generated from 10 taught control points. The system then allows the user to tweak these points, if necessary. The polishing software enables the user to customize the "stiffness" of the system for different work pieces, materials and abrasive wheels. 

We  coined the term Hyper-Point to define the point, reachable by the robot and it's associated process parameters. Process parameters include force, speed and device signals to be set at that point. The operator can play back, fast forward, rewind and edit (e.g. insert, modify or delete) these Hyper-Points. The Hyper-Points are stored as program files by the system. These files contain all the data the robot controller needs to perform the polishing task for that part. A Simulation environment and a run time interface to the robot, from the simulation environment was developed and licensed to Schlage lock. A variation of this system was developed for Warner Robins Air Force Base and is used to strip paint off F-18 Aircraft.  

Benefits

Rapid generation of the trajectories of motion significantly reduces the time and costs associated with robot programming. A  family of parts can be polished using the same software modules, with motion parameters being read from configuration files during system initialization. If the automation of a family of parts is of interest, our software driven approach is more cost effective and "reusable" than other more traditional, hardware intensive solutions.