Gunnar Bolmsjö

Linnaeus University | lnu · Department of Mechanical Engineering

The key driving factors in using humans and robots in collaborative applications for assembly processes are to reduce assembly time, cost and to improve the human working environment from an ergonomic viewpoint. Currently, there are limited automated procedures in assembly operations in house construction because the traditional type of assembly pr...

The automotive industry is going through a radical transformation from combustion engines to fully electric propulsion, aiming at improving key performance indicators related to efficiency, environmental sustainability and economic competitiveness. In this transition period, it is important to continue the innovation of combustion engines for e.g....

Friction stir welding (FSW) is a reliable joining technology with a wide industrial uptake. However, several fundamentals of the process such as the temperature inside the stirred zone of the weld and its influence on mechanical properties, are not yet fully understood. This paper shows a method for accurate temperature measurements in multiple loc...

During Friction Stir Welding (FSW) of complex geometries, the thermal dissipation, induced by geometric features or the surrounding environment, may strongly affect the final weld quality. In order to guarantee a consistent weld quality for different conditions, in-process welding parameter adaptation is needed. This paper studies the effect of the...

The increasing industrial demand for lighter, more complex and multi-material components supports the development of novel joining processes with increased automation and process control. Friction stir welding (FSW) is such a process and has seen a fast development in several industries. This welding technique gives the opportunity of automation an...

Friction stir welding (FSW) and variants of the process have generated high interest in many industries due to its several advantages such as low distortion, superior mechanical properties over arc welding and the possibility of joining dissimilar materials. Increased complexity of industrial applications require a better control of the welding pro...

The ongoing trend towards manufacturing of customized products generates an increased demand on highly efficient work methods to manage product variants through flexible automation. Adopting robots for automation is not always feasible in low batch production. However, the combination of humans together with robots performing tasks in collaboration...

Making use of robot automation for customized products put high demand not only on the robot but on the efficiency, simplicity and flexibility to actually deploy and use robots in manufacturing stations and production lines in short batches and low volume production. Hence, market oriented product development and production requires more products t...

Friction stir weld (FSW) has generated a high interest in many industry segments in the past 20 years. Along with new industrial challenges, more complex geometries and high quality demands, a better control of the welding process is required. New approaches using temperature controlled welding have been proposed and revealed good results. However,...

A continuous trend towards more demanding joint geometries is imposed across various manufacturing industries. During Friction Stir Welding (FSW) of such complex geometries, the surrounding environment plays an important role on the final weld quality, especially in thermal aspects. In order to guarantee a consistent weld quality for different cond...

Flexible human-robot industrial coproduction will be important in many small and middle-sized companies in the future. One of the major challenges in a flexible robot cell is how to transfer information between the human and the robot with help of existing and safety approved equipment. In this paper a case study will be presented where the first h...

Purpose – This paper aims to present a deflection model to improve positional accuracy of industrial robots. Earlier studies have demonstrated the lack of accuracy of heavy-duty robots when exposed to high external forces. One application where the robot is pushed to its limits in terms of forces is friction stir welding (FSW). This process require...

In this paper, early work on how to implement flexible safety zones is presented. In the case study an industrial robot cell emulates the environment at a wall construction site, with a robot performing nailing routines. Tests are performed with humans entering the safety zones of a SafetyEye system. The zone violation is detected, and new warning...

Friction stir welding (FSW) of non-linear joints receives an increasing interest from several industrial sectors like automotive, urban transport and aerospace. A force-controlled robot is particularly suitable for welding complex geometries in lightweight alloys. However, complex geometries including three-dimensional joints, non-constant thicknes...

This paper presents a concept for reconfigurable and flexible robot systems. To reach a technology readiness level where solutions and results can be implemented in industry, the focus in this work is on systems with limited number of robots, and work scenarios which are reasonable complex but hard to automate using standard solutions. Four distinc...

Previous research within friction stir welding (FSW) has demonstrated that online control of welding parameters can improve the mechanical properties and is necessary for certain applications to guarantee a consistent weld quality. One approach to control the process is by adapting the heat input to maintain a stable welding temperature, within the...

To simulate human motions in DHM tools, using techniques which are based on real human data is one promising solution. We have presented a solution in this study to connect motion databases with DHM tools. We have showed that using a motion database with MTM-based annotations is a promising way in order to synthesize natural looking motions. A plat...

One way of enhancing motion simulation in digital human modeling (DHM) tools is to use data-driven methods which are based on real motion data. In spite of the availability of motion captured data-sets which are offered for different purposes by commercial and research institutes, aggregation and integration of these motions in a unified and struct...

Purpose – Friction stir welding (FSW) is a novel method for joining materials without using consumables and without melting the materials. The purpose of this paper is to present the state of the art in robotic FSW and outline important steps for its implementation in industry and specifically the automotive industry. Design/methodology/approach –...

Collaborative robotic systems where human(s) and robot(s) cooperate in performing a common task is an attractive solution to introduce automation combined with high flexibility for tasks that have a high complexity and characterized by low volume or down to one-off. By introducing collaboration in robotics systems, the operator can complement with...

The thermal boundary conditions change throughout the weld cycle to seal copper canisters resulting in variable power input requirement to keep the welding temperature within the process window. The variable power input requirement together with the lag time of approximately 20 seconds in the tool temperature reading results in problems when trying...

Concept and design of a new indoor service robot locomotion technology are described in the paper. The proposed solution extends the workspace of existing indoor ground based service robots in the vertical direction, while ensuring higher payload capability than aerial robots and less environment invasive than industrial gantry robots. The concept...

As much attention has devoted to the proteome research during the last few years, biomarker discovery has become an increasingly hot area, potentially enabling the development of new assays for diagnosis and prognosis of severe diseases. This is the field of research interest where efforts originating from both academic and industrial groups should...

This paper describes the development of a prototype product named MAGIC-HAND that has been developed to open bottles, jars and packages that require a twisting action. Its intended users are people with severe disabilities, who are not capable of using the current range of package opening tools. MAGIC-HAND is a kitchen accessory device that fits in...

We describe the design and implementation of a generic robotic solution to automate the loading of MALDI sample plates into a mass spectrometer. The soft- and hardware aspects are described together with the various safety issues that need to be addressed. The automation increases throughput by a factor of between 5- and 80-fold.

This paper presents the design and validation of a universal 6D seam tracking system that reduces the need of accurate robot trajectory programming and geometrical databases in robotic laser scanning. The 6D seam tracking system was developed in the flexible unified simulation environment, integrating software prototyping with mechanical virtual pr...

A capillary filling microfluidic proteomic sample processing system has been realized in an automated set-up. Chip-integrated solid-phase extraction is performed in a 96-array format followed by sequential capillary action elution into a piezoelectric microdispenser and subsequent transfer to MALDI targets. Samples are eluted and deposited in volum...

The human care and service field requires an innovative robotic solution to make the daily care of elderly and disabled people in both home and workplace environments easier. The European Union (EU) project MATS (flexible mechatronic assistive technology system) has developed a new concept of a climbing robot for this type of service application. T...

From car manufacturing to the production of niche products, welding is now one of the most widespread and successful applications of industrial robotics. Welding Robotics: Technology, System Issues and Application is a detailed overview of robotic welding at the beginning of the twenty-first century. The last few years-worth of evolution in roboti...

A task-oriented system structure has been developed. In normal in- dustrial robot programming, the path is created and the process is based on the path. Here a process-focused method is proposed, where a task can be split in sub-tasks, one for each part of the process with simi- lar process-characteristics. By carefully encapsulating the informatio...

An overview is given of the design and implementation of a platform for fast external sensor integration in an industrial robot system called ABB S4CPlus. As an application and motivating example, the implementation of force-controlled grinding and deburring within the AUTOFETT-project is discussed. Experiences from industrial usage of the fully de...

Purpose Seeks to present a methodology for working with bottle‐neck reduction by using a combination of automatic data collection and discrete‐event simulation (DES) for a manufacturing system. Design/methodology/approach In the DES model, the bottle‐neck was identified by studying the simulation runs based on the collected automatic data from the...

Purpose Aims to present general concepts and framework for increasing the flexibility in robotic arc welding with respect to use of sensors and small series production. Design/methodology/approach Presents a conceptual model with a framework that integrates existing tools and needed developments and research to increase the usefulness of sensors i...

Presents an approach to improved performance and flexibility in industrial robotics by means of sensor integration and feedback control in task-level programming and task execution. Also presents feasibility studies in support of the ideas. Discusses some solutions to the problem using six degrees of freedom force control together with the ABB S4CP...

Discrete-event simulation (DES) and disturbance reduction techniques are a combination for improving efficiency in manufacturing systems. The DES modelling allows different tests to be carried out by step-by-step alteration. The use of manufacturing improvement techniques should be combined for best results. The changes in disturbances will show us...

This paper presents the design and validation of a novel and universal 6D seam tracking system that reduces the need of accurate robot trajectory programming and geometrical databases in robotic arc welding. Such sensor driven motion control together with adaptive control of the weld- ing process is the foundation for increased flexibility and auto...

We describe the design and implementation of a robotic solution to automate the acquisition of gel images. The soft- and hardware aspects are outlined together with the various safety aspects that need to be addressed.

Background: An increasing number of industrial robots are being programmed using CAR (Computer Aided Robotics). Sensor guidance offers a means of coping with frequent product changes in manufacturing systems. However, sensors increase the uncertainty and to preserve system robustness, a tool is needed that makes it possible to understand a sensor g...

New areas in welding large structures in shipbuilding include joining large sections such as double-hull constructions. Joining these sections create great problems for a manual welder since the welding takes place in a closed area with associated work environmental problems. The ac- cessibility to the working area is limited to a man-hole and the...

The development of robotized welding is truly impressive and is today one of the major application areas for industrial robots. The first industrial robots were introduced in the early 1960s for material transfer and machine tending. Not long after that, robots were used for spot welding and in the early 1970s for arc welding as well. During the ye...

This paper presents a description of a methodological framework for de-sign and manufacturing of prototypes using computer tools as an aid dur-ing the entire design process. An Important aspect in this methodology is information integration, not only between computer tools but primar-ily between human resources, their different expertise areas, per...

ABSTRACT Sensor equipped,robots should benefit from using a world model,when,process-dependent decisions such as collision control have to be taken in real-time. The world model,can quite easily be represented and up- dated in a CAR (Computer Aided Robotics) applica- tion. A missing link, however, is the ability to remotely control the robot motion...

Discrete-event simulation improves the possibility to study manufacturing systems. The use is in- creasing compared to previous studies and 15% of 80 companies investigated are using the tool and of these four companies extensively. The main advantage according to the survey beside the visualization part is that the knowledge about a system is inve...

The application of commercial software (OLP) packages for robot simulation, and programming, use interactive computer graphics, provide powerful tools for creating welding paths off-line. By the use of such software, problems of robot reach, accessibility, collision and timing can be eliminated during the planning stage. This paper describes how su...

Focuses on the integrated use of simulation tools, particularly discrete-event simulation, in the design and development of manufacturing systems in Japanese industry. The results are based on questionnaires and visits to seven large Japanese manufacturers and show that most of the visited companies do not use simulation to any large extent, partic...

Robots in rehabilitation introduce a number of challenging tasks which in general are based on interaction with a human user and operation in a fairly, but not complete, unstructured environment. In this context, techniques on different levels for control and operation of such robots must be developed that facilitate a certain degree of Intelligenc...

The paper presents a database-based method to reduce the development time and project lead-time for large discrete-event simulation models of entire factories. The database used to automatically generate and drive the simulation model is a copy of the production planning database. A set of proof-of-concept tools and a database have been generated t...

Although reduction of disturbances may result in productivity increase, some of the presumed gain may be diverted to other disturbances. There is a need to develop methods that provide a better understanding of the causes and actions of disturbances in manufacturing systems. Discrete-event simulation is used to analyze the effects of reduced distur...

This paper describes the education in programming and simulation of robotic arc welding in Mechanical Engineering, Lund University. The exercises are based on the software tools IGRIP and UltraArc which enable the students to do most of the work on computers rather than working with the robot. One obvious advantage is that more students can be trai...

In 1997, work began on a project, funded by the European Commission Telematics Application Programme DG XIII to develop a computerised Hand Assessment System (HATS - Hand Assessment and Treatment System). One of the principal objectives of the project was to determine if the new computerised hand assessment system enabled significant time savings t...

This paper addresses the problems involved in the automatic monitoring of the weld quality produced by robotized short-arc welding. A simple statistical change detection algorithm for the weld quality, the repeated Sequential Probability Ratio Test (SPRT), was used. The algorithm may similarly be viewed as a cumulative sum (CUSUM) type test, and is...

The paper presents a methodology for incremental development of large discrete-event simulation models. The proposed methodology has evolved during a project performed in collaboration with BT Products. The methodology is based on configuration management to secure simulation model integrity and modularization of the model. Modularization reduces c...

Focusing on creating a module which will cooperate with Computer Aided Robotics (CAR) applications used both off-line and on-line, this paper outlines a generic interface, i.e. an architecture that can handle virtual as well as physical sensors in a transparent way to the user. The design which allows autonomous behavior at sensor level, is exempli...

Over the last ten years, there has been a great deal of research and development in Sweden in the field of rehabilitation robotics. The research effort has often focused on workplace adaptations. This paper deals with four robotic adaptations, all of which are in use. The current state of the research and development is also described. Mr Christer...

A modular and reconfigurable robot which is possible to mount on a nobile base has been designed and constructed and is now in the systems in tegration validation phase of the physical robot. During this work, simulations using IGRIP and other related analysis software tools have been important during the development work to analyze and evaluate th...

This paper deals with the problems involved in the automatic monitoring the quality of the weld joint. Three alternative statistical change detection algorithms for weld quality have been used and compared: the repeated Sequential Probability Ratio test (SPRT), and two different Filtered Derivative Algorithms (FDA). The test statistic is based upon...

This paper presents an event based control system structure for the control of a robot workcell and its implementation. The goal for this control system is to autonomously manage the dynamic environment of a robot workcell. The presented control system is event driven and operates from tasks and a World model, defined in a task oriented programming...

Flexible automation of welding processes put great demand on stability in process control to meet productivity and quality specifications. Due to the complexity in robotic arc welding, knowledge based systems in various forms are an attractive way to solve many problems related to optimization and control of interrelated and sometimes counteracting...

Robot control systems and other manufacturing equipment are traditionally closed. This circumstance has hampered system integration of manipulators, sensors and other equipment and such system integration has often been made at an unsuitably high hierarchical level. The purpose of the present project is to show how to organize open robot control sy...

Programming arc welding robots is a time consuming process which normally is conducted manually by the traditional teach-in method using teach pendant, joystick or push buttons. During the last years, advanced graphical simulation software took have developed to a stage where they are feasible to be used as a tool for off-line programming of robot...

A central part of the design of a production system is to methodically weigh the production factors, labor, and capital (machines, robots, etc.) and integrate them into a well-functioning unit. The purpose of this article is to analyze the impact of human factors on the design of an Advanced Manufacturing System (AMS). The impact is illustrated in...

A central part of the design of a production system is to methodically weigh the production factors, labor and capital and integrate them into a well-functioning unit. The life-cycle costing technique is primarily used when quantifying the costs related to a production system from the perspective of the life cycle of investments in production equip...

A fundamental physical understanding of the properties and structure of dynamic robot models is the basis of controller design for robotic manipulators. This paper focuses on the estimation of different parameters which appear in the dynamics models of robots. By introducing candidate functions and a statistical approach to analyze these functions...

Automation of deburring and cleaning of castings is desirable for many reasons. The major reasons are dangerous working conditions, difficulties in finding workers for cleaning sections, and improved profitability. A suitable robot cell capable of using different tools, such as cup grinders, disc grinders and rotary files, is the solution. This rob...

Robotics in rehabilitation provide considerable opportunities to improve the quality of life for physically disabled people. However, practical results are limited, mainly due to the need for developing new robotics concepts where people are working together with robots, as opposed to industrial robots where they are working in separated areas. The...

Industrial robots has for many years successfully been utilised in a wide range of different applications. One area that is not so widespread, is inspection and quality control. The potential has increased with the development of new sensors with better performance at lower costs. In addition, automated manufacturing systems requires automated insp...

A mobile robot system is being designed to work in a chemical laboratory environment for people with physical disabilities. We have found that chemical laboratories are good workplace alternatives to the office environment (see BACKGROUND). The main requirement for the workplace is to keep the work meaningful after the workplace has been robotized....

Welding robots that use sensors to compensate for variations in their environment pose new requirements for programming systems and for controller architectures. Tracking sensors must be programmed with the geometry of the welds and the motions of the robot. The process monitoring system must be programmed with the required process tolerances and t...