Robotic tEchnologies for the Manipulation of cOmplex DeformablE Linear objects

Project Information

REMODEL

Grant agreement ID: 870133

DOI

10.3030/870133

Project closed

EC signature date 11 October 2019

Start date 1 November 2019

End date 31 October 2023

Funded under

• INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Leadership in enabling and industrial technologies - Advanced manufacturing and processing

Total cost

€ 5 920 412,50

EU contribution

€ 5 920 412,50

Coordinated by

ALMA MATER STUDIORUM - UNIVERSITA DI BOLOGNA
Italy

Periodic Reporting for period 3 - REMODEL (Robotic tEchnologies for the Manipulation of cOmplex DeformablE Linear objects)

Reporting period: 2022-11-01 to 2023-10-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The REMODEL main objective is to enable new production environments, where the manufacturing of complex products composed of multiple wires and cables by means of robots is not only possible, but fully integrated with the product design chain. Wires, cables, wiring harnesses, laces and flexible tubes have a transversal application in many manufacturing processes, where these technologies could lean the scale for a total automation, decreasing the production costs and improving the worker conditions. On the other hand, wires and cables handling is full of uncertainties and it has complex behaviour during manipulation. Advance simulation in the materials and the forces involved during manipulation and handling should be integrated. A holistic approach supported by physics and experimental data is needed in order to cope with real time manipulation.
The REMODEL project aims to develop low-cost and affordable hardware and software tools as well as innovative methodologies enabling the implementation of manufacturing activities involving the manipulation of complex deformable objects in industrial automated production lines. REMODEL main target is the robotic handling of Deformable Linear Objects (DLOs) and the routing of multiple DLOs to create wiring harnesses, by deeply understanding their complex behaviour, including elasticity and plasticity, and embedding this knowledge, together with proper manipulation skills and perception, based on vision and tactile sensing, into a bimanual robotic system. In WIRES, where three of the REMODEL consortium partners were involved, the basic tools to enable the routing of electric wires and their fitting into standard electromechanical components by means of a conventional industrial manipulator with fixed base have been investigated and developed. REMODEL will extend the applicability of these robotic technologies to other domains, by introducing bimanual coordinated dual-arm manipulators and making them able to manipulate long cables as well as complex wiring harness made of multiple cables and with several branches and connectors at each end. Moreover, the presence of obstacles, multiple contact points along the cable path will be taken into account, allowing the usage of the developed technologies in the field of aerospace and automotive manufacturing. Aiming at showing the applicability of the REMODEL outcomes to other fields, the handling of silicon hoses for medical usage and its inspection for quality check will be also considered.
REMODEL aims to promote EU 2020 targets of a smart and inclusive economy, fostering socially sustainable, safe and attractive workplaces by creating high-tech companies involved in innovative manufacturing. This will increase EU industrial competitiveness and sustainability in a global world through R&I activities for the timely development of new knowledge-based production, technologies and systems, competitive and sustainable production plants, industrial automation, machinery and robotics.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

During the third reporting period, the activities have been focused on the implementation of the final demonstrators for the all the use case considered in the project.
With reference to the REMODEL objectives, the following advancements have been achieved in the third reporting period:
- Realtime tracking of DLO shape and behaviour has been developed, and this technology has been applied also to the case of wiring harness for manufacturing and assembly purposes;
- Manipulation algorithms based on perception data and DLO models exploiting both data-driven and model-based methods, to join task planning and feedback control have been developed for both the single-cable and the wiring harness case;
- The implementation of the final demonstrators for all the Use Cases considered in the project have been achieved;
- Evaluation of the final demonstrators by the workers have been performed and feedbacks have been collected and analyzed to evaluated the project results.

The analisys performed during the project highlighted 13 exploitable results:
1- CATIA application for flexible robotics programming
2- Generation of robot planning from product (3D) CAD files for switchgear wiring
3- Multi-sensorized modular and reconfigurable manipulation tools
4- Dual arm robotic platform for switchgear wiring
5- Manipulator for Quality Checks in Extrusion Processes in biomedical industry
6- Dual arm robotic platform for Automotive Industry
7- CAD Platform Interface to provide the system planner, the layout and product inputs
8- Integrated dual arm manipulation system for interconnection systems automatic manufacturing process.
9- Automated robot / sensor calibration toolkit
10- Bimanual manipulation system for wiring harness manipulation.
11- Interactive perception module exploiting vision and touch
12- Streamlined User Interface for Enhanced ROS Interaction
13- Dual arm robotic platform for autonomous switchgear connection checking

Moreover, a patent application about the REMODEL resutls have been registered and a spin-off company for the exploitation and commercialization of project results has been created.

These results have been disseminated through different channels:
2 Organisation of Conferences
7 Organisation of Workshops
4 Press release
15 Participation to Conferences
15 Participation to Workshops
1 Brokerage Event
3 Pitch Events
3 Participation in activities organised jointly with other EU project(s)

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

Within the REMODEL project, developing robots able to manipulate flexible materials such as DLOs means optimize a manufacturing processes where the best attributes of robot (i.e. high speed, accuracy, strength and repeatability for less skilled tasks) and humans (i.e. physical dexterity, cognitive reasoning, creativity) are exploited at their best. This means that the robot must be embedded with the ability of detecting and managing the initial and final configuration of the object to manipulate, introducing suitable models and identification techniques of objects and materials, devoted perception systems based on vision, proximity and tactile sensors, as well as manipulation algorithms and tools able to deal with DLOs. In this perspective, great focus will be addressed on the perceived and effective worker’s job quality and safety (OECD Job Quality Index). Job quality is a key determinant of individual’s well-being and a fundamental aspect of workers’ participation, productivity, and performance within the working environments.
The REMODEL robotic system is conceived to acquire information about the product directly from the CAD platform, without any human intervention, and to preprocess the product itself before the human intervention needed to complete the manufacturing. In this way, many of the most repetitive and stressful operations can be carried out by the robot, eventually also during night shifts, while the workers will be devoted to more qualified and decision-making activities, in which the added value coming from their expertise can be fully exploited. The task learnt by the robot will be adapted online to the initial configuration of the deformable objects to be manipulated, thanks to the feedback provided by the sensory equipment. Moreover, specific tools, control algorithms, modeling and online identification techniques will be developed to manipulate DLOs, considering also the case of complex connection networks such as wiring harnesses composed by multiple branches.

The REMODEL approach to manufacturing involving DLOs manipulation.