Fast automatic deburring of circular castings by co-operating industrial and modular robot

Castings will enter a deburring cell from a sand-blast chamber on a conveyor belt. The type of the casting is known in advance. An industrial robot guided by an off-the-self vision system picks up the casting. The robot's grip is assured by a one-dimensional force sensor and by measuring the position of the fingers of the pneumatic gripper. The force sensor is combined by a spring and a distance sensor. These low-price sensors are sufficient for the purpose. The industrial robot moves the casting to a modular manipulator with three degrees of freedom. It moves the casting against a rotating grinding stone. The grip of the chuck is assured by a cheap pneumatic sensor (pressure switch). The stone wear will be compensated by measuring the radius of the stone on time to time by moving an optical grid towards the center of the stone. This does not require any additional axes. Long movements with accurately controllable lengths will be provided by combining pneumatic cylinders with servo-controlled position of mechanical shock absorbers as stoppers for the cylinders. The emphasis has been on low-price technology and cycle times less than 12 s per casting.