Laboratory Projects Course in Robotic Manipulation and Assembly 15-499E
Spring 1997
Instructors: Michael Erdmann and Matt Mason
Emails: removed
Location: Manipulation Laboratory (BoM D 143)
Time: Mondays 1:30-4:30
NOTE: The first meeting will be in Doherty Hall 3313, Monday
January 13, 1996, 1:30pm.
This course offers students a semester of hands-on experience learning
modern robot manipulation methods. The course is structured as a
laboratory course, with projects developed by the students, working
together in small groups.
The hardware consists of several robot arms, vision systems, feeders, and
miscellaneous small electronics and manufacturing parts. The equipment
includes state-of-the art assembly workcells from Adept and Sony.
Prerequisites for the course are:
- 15-384, Robotic Manipulation.
- Instructor permission.
Students will be expected to learn how to use the robots by working
fairly independently in small groups. We expect therefore that all
students will have some prior robot experience, such as that provided in
15-384. In addition, a willingness to work with industrial hardware is
very important. This is not a spoon-feed course. The hardware is
rugged. The robots and their interfaces are identical to those found in
industrial shops. The course offers excellent practical preparation for
students interested in automation, either for industrial work or for
later graduate work.
The core ideas we expect students to learn are:
- kinematics
-- what motions can the robot perform?
-- how does one program the robot to move?
- sensing
-- how does the robot know about its world?
-- how do vision, force sensors, light sensors, etc., help?
- part pre-positioning
-- how can the robot find an object in its workspace?
-- how can the robot put the object where it wants?
- uncertainty and error-recovery
-- the world is unpredictable; parts slip, sensors fail, robots vibrate.
-- How does one guard against errors?
- assembly
-- how can the robot put several parts together?
-- what are compliance, guarded moves, history?
Some project suggestions: (better yet, bring your own ideas!)
- Assembly of parts in a radio-controlled car.
- Assembly of printed-circuit boards.
- Disassembly of parts for recycling.
- A junk separator.
- A learning system that improves robot parts handling.
- A collision avoidance planner.
- Design of special-purpose grippers, fixtures, feeders.
- A robot that rearranges/sorts desktops.
- Two robots cooperating.