A mobile assembly apparatus and a method of assembling a retail product utilizing a retail assembly are discussed. The mobile assembly apparatus may include a cabinet structure, an expandable work surface, a frame, wheels, an articulated arm, outrigger supports, a power supply, sensors, a hardware dispenser, and a computing device. The mobile assembly apparatus scans a machine readable identifier and retrieves assembly instructions for an item associated with the identifier. The computing device controls the outrigger supports and extendable surface based on the instructions. The computing device monitors the progress of the assembly of the time and validates the assembly based on assembly data from the sensors.

A manufacturing system (20) comprises: one or more stores (84; 80A-80C; 92) for raw materials, work-in-progress (WIP), and finished goods; a plurality of manufacturing cells (40A-40F), each cell includes: one or more machines (42A-42C) for manufacturing an assembly; and a programmable logic controller (PLC) (44) for controlling the machines; one or more devices (60, 70) for moving raw material, WIP, and finished goods; and one or more servers (32) for communicating with the PLCs and the devices. The one or more servers further have programming for: instructing (642) the plurality of manufacturing cells to assemble finished goods from the raw materials; instructing (628, 632) the one or more devices to move said raw materials and finished goods; and just in sequence (JIS) skipped assembly recovery steps (730) for the manufacturing cells and devices.

Methods and systems for designing a volumetric model of a construct at a user interface through use of a 3-D design, fabrication and assembly system comprising a modeling component, a robotic assembly workstation component, and a workflow configuration module to generate, through the workflow configuration module, a 3-D print bill of materials for a rendered volumetric model; generate a workflow configuration model based on the 3-D print bill of materials, the model including an automated robot control scheme of a series of assembly order instructions to direct a multi-axis robot of the robotic assembly workstation component to print and/or assemble a construct; transmit the workflow configuration model to the robotic assembly workstation component with a print and/or assembly command in accordance with the automated robot control scheme; and print and/or assemble the construct with the multi-axis robot in accordance with the print and/or assembly command.

An information processing device includes: a memory; and a processor coupled to the memory and configured to: assign a task to be executed to each arm of a robot system having arms; determine an execution time period for each operation included in each task assigned to the each arm based on whether the each operation is an operation in an interference region, in which the arms interfere with each other, or an operation in a non-interference region, in which the arms do not interfere with each other; and display workload charts of the arms side by side, an execution time period for each operation and a time period during which no operation is executed being arranged along a time axis in the workload chart of the each arm.

A robotic work cell uses an object separating mechanism to disperse bulk objects into a 2D arrangement on a horizontal surface and uses a vision system to generate pick-up (positional) data and rotational orientation data for each sequentially selected target object of the 2D arrangement. A pick-and-place robot mechanism uses the positional data to pick-up each target object and uses the rotational orientation data to reorientate the target object during transfer to a designated hand-off location. A carousel-type robotic end-tool disposed on a 4-axis object-processing robot mechanism rotates a gripper mechanism around a vertical axis to move the target object from the hand-off location to a designated processing location, where an associated processing device performs a desired process (e.g., label application) on the target object. In one embodiment the gripper mechanism is selectively rotatable around a horizontal axis to facilitate processing on opposing surfaces of the target object.

A method and apparatus for controlling a tooling operation to be performed by a tooling system in an assembly process. A current set of parameter values for a set of parameters for the tooling system are modified iteratively, until the current set of parameter values are determined to result in the tooling operation producing an output that meets a set of criteria, to form a final set of parameter values. The tooling operation is performed with the tooling system using the final set of parameter values. A determination is made as to whether the output of the tooling operation meets the set of criteria based on sensor data about the output. A new set of parameter values are identified as the current set of parameter values to be evaluated in response to a determination that the output of the tooling operation does not meet the set of criteria.

An assembly line arrangement includes an assembly line tool attached to a movable trolley guided by roof-mounted rails. The arrangement has one or more first range detectors mounted on the roof-mounted rails and/or trolley in order to determine the position of the trolley in a plane defined by the roof-mounted rails, and one or more second range detectors mounted on the trolley in order to determine the location of a chassis of a vehicle on an assembly line.

A method, a device, and a computer-readable storage medium is provided for performing the method for automating an assembling sequence operation for a workpiece using an one-up assembly process that uses adjacent hole clamping. The method can include obtaining an adjacency list from points for the workpiece to be assembled; controlling an assembly machine for assembling the workpiece using a sequence of assembly operations based on the adjacency list; identifying potential errors in the sequence of assembly operations; determining a revised sequence of assembly operations based on the potential errors that are identified; and controlling the assembly machine based on the revised sequence of assembly operations.

A method of programless assembly of a device using a robotic cell comprising calibrating a robotic cell for generating a product model, the robotic cell including an end-of-arm camera and utilizing the robotic cell to generate the product model of the device for assembly. The method in one embodiment further comprises validating the product model using a partial assembly method and making the product model available for use by robotic cells.

A production facility is provided with: an AGV for transporting a plurality of fuselage panels of multiple types having different shapes in a mixed state on a previously determined transport path; a plurality of A/Rs for riveting the fuselage panels; work areas set so as to correspond to the respective A/Rs in which the A/Rs move to rivet the fuselage panels; and a buffer area, set beforehand in the transport path adjacent to the work area, to which the A/R corresponding to the adjacent work area moves so as to rivet the fuselage panel. When there is no fuselage panel to be riveted in the work area adjacent to the buffer area and the fuselage panel to be riveted is present in the buffer area, a control device moves the A/R corresponding to the work area adjacent to the buffer area to the buffer area to rivet the fuselage panel.