Application of ABBUP6 industrial robots in an automated glass stacking system
On a flat-glass production line, manual stacking frequently caused surface scratches and staining that resulted in scrapped glass. Handling also required substantial labor and was inefficient. During an upgrade, four ABBUP6 industrial robots were introduced for automated stacking. The ABBuP6 robotic packing and stacking system is an integrated system comprising industrial robots, controllers, programming units, robot grippers, an online robot vision system, and stacking pattern software. The system includes automatic weighing, labeling, inspection, and communication systems. It is connected to the production control system to form a fully integrated glass production line. In this flexible stacking system, robots use suction-cup grippers to pick up and stack flat glass.
1 Features of the ABB-UP6 Industrial Robot
The ABB-UP6 industrial robot has a six-axis, vertically articulated structure, as shown in Figure 1. Shengtai Automation robot repair. Its simplified mechanical structure is shown in Figure 2. This type of robot is commonly used for arc welding, handling, and spray painting. Accurate control algorithms and high-precision sensing components substantially improve path accuracy during high-speed motion. This greatly improves operating quality in high-speed arc welding, spray painting, and stacking and handling tasks. The robot has a user-friendly human-machine interface and is easy to program.
Figure 1 Simplified View of the UP6 Robot
Figure 2 Simplified Mechanical Structure of the ABBUP6 Robot
The controller supports standard industrial networks such as Ethernet, MNet, DeviceNet, Interbus, and Profibus, making it easy to establish communication with peripheral equipment.
Collision detection: This function stops the robot as soon as it contacts a surrounding object, reducing collision damage.
The robot has a relatively large working range, with a minimum radius of R392 mm and a maximum radius of R1373 mm.
2 Design of the Automated Robotic Stacking System
2.1 Design Principles
A robotic workstation is an independent production system that uses one or more robots with suitable peripheral equipment to perform a specific process. Its main components are the robots and their control systems, a vision system, auxiliary equipment, and other peripheral equipment.
The design principles are as follows:
1) Improve product quality and keep glass clean and free of scratches during stacking.
2) Meet operating accuracy and product quality grading requirements.
3) Meet production cycle requirements, with a robot response time below 900 ms.
4) The complete system and all its components must meet applicable safety codes and standards. All equipment and control systems must have online fault displays and alarm devices.
5) Facilitate maintenance and servicing.
6) Provide a clear, simple operating system that supports easy operation, manual intervention, and networked control.
7) Facilitate workstation integration into the production line, with streamlined, centralized communication wiring.
8) Ensure affordability and rapid commissioning.
2.2 Layout
Based on these design principles and an analysis of the plant's existing production line, the layout of the ABB robotic glass stacking system was designed as shown in Figure 3.
Figure 3 Layout of the ABB Automated Robotic Stacking System
An IBR6600225/2.55 robot is installed on one side of the production line, and an IRB7600-340/2.8 robot is installed on the other. Each robot is equipped with two rotating glass stacking tables. Under normal production conditions, two robots are in operation, with two robots assigned to picking and stacking first-grade flat-glass products and another assigned to picking and stacking second-grade products. Product grades are determined through inspection by the vision system. One additional robot is kept on standby.
2.3 Auxiliary Equipment
Auxiliary equipment includes end effectors, robot mounting platforms, automatic weighing equipment for standard glass crates, a labeling system, and a pallet conveyor system.
The end effector consists of a set of vacuum suction cups with adjustable positions. Detection signals from the vision system are processed by the host computer, and the controller automatically adjusts the positions of selected suction cups to accommodate glass of different sizes and shapes. Maximum glass dimensions handled by the suction cups: 2000 × 1500 × (3–19) mm; workpiece travel range: 20002200 mm; cycle time: 15 s per sheet; end-effector actuation: pneumatic; gripping method: vacuum suction; air pressure: 6 bar; air consumption: 0.5 m³/min; suction-cup gripper net weight: approximately 15 kg.
2.4 Control Method
The system uses distributed control (DCS). The host computer starts the industrial robots to perform their tasks based on signals from the robot vision system. Figure 4 shows the relationships between the control system components.
Figure 4 Control System Structure
2.5 Robot Vision System
Parts are identified using a feature-position method and located using the centroid method in combination with feature points and the minimum second moment. The system uses a pinhole camera model with first-order radial lens distortion. The camera is a Mintron MTC-63V5H, a 1/3-inch high-resolution color camera. Its CCD has 795(H) × 596(V) total pixels in PAL format. The scanning system uses 625 lines and 50 fields per second. Minimum illumination is 0.8 lux at F1.2 and 56000 K, and the signal-to-noise ratio is 52 dB/60 dB. Image acquisition uses a Tianmin sDK-2000 video capture card, which provides a basic development library. The acquisition rate is 30 frames per second, with a display resolution of 640 × 480 and 24-bit true color. The camera is calibrated using the two-step radial alignment constraint (RAC) method and verified online. The product recognition accuracy is 100%, and the system processing time is approximately 300 ms, meeting the real-time and accuracy requirements for assembly operations (900 ms).
2.6 Communication: ABB remote intelligent I/O system (MasterFieldbus network)
ABB MasterFieldbus is a communication network connecting ABB process stations and control stations. Its maximum serial communication distance is 750 m. The network comprises controllers, SDB short connection cables (shielded two-core cables), LDB long connection cables (twisted-pair cables), modems, terminal units, and dedicated software. The remote intelligent I/O system simplifies communication wiring, improves system stability, and ensures reliable system communication. Robot repair. The communication flow is shown in Figure 5.
Figure 5 Remote Intelligent I/O System Communication
2.7 Workflow
Figure 6 shows the workflow of three ABBUP6 robots and how they coordinate their operations to match the production line cycle. Figure 7 shows the robot picking process.
Figure 6 Automated Robotic Stacking System Workflow
3 Conclusion
Practical operation has demonstrated that ABB-UP6 industrial robots can effectively perform automated glass stacking on the production line. They substantially improve product quality and prevent scrap caused by scratches and surface staining during manual stacking, providing reliable quality assurance for high-quality glass production lines. Shengtai Automation. They also improve glass handling efficiency and production benefits. This successful example of industrial robot use can serve as a reference for the application and wider adoption of robotics.