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Measurement Science for Manufacturing Robotics Program Videos

Videos from the Measurement Science for Manufacturing Robotics Program

Highlight Videos from the 2020 ARIAC Competition
Highlight Videos from the 2020 ARIAC Competition
Some highlights from the 2020 NIST-led Agile Robotics for Industrial Automation Competition (ARIAC). This is the fourth year of the competition, which included robots navigating around human workers and a dual-armed robot on a gantry.
Multi-Robot Assembly with Fast Registration
Multi-Robot Assembly with Fast Registration
This video demonstrates a technique for rapidly re-registering a robot when the base of the robot is moved. Two robots from different manufacturers perform an assembly of rigid parts in position control. Both robots are in stock configurations, and are sent motion commands in world coordinates. After completing the assembly, the base of one of the robots is then moved to a random location, and re-registered to the work volume. The assembly is then performed again without any changes made to the program.

 

Restoration of the Rigid Body Condition (RRBC) Method
Restoration of the Rigid Body Condition (RRBC) Method
This video shows the general procedure to restore the rigid body condition (RRBC) to improve positional accuracy using a peg-in-hole task. [No Audio]

ARIAC 2019 Highlight Video
ARIAC 2019 Highlight Video

 Agile Robotics for Industrial Automation Competition 2019

This year the Agile Robotics for Industrial Automation Competition (ARIAC) saw a record number of qualifying teams and participants. ARIAC is simulation-based and designed to promote robot agility by utilizing the latest advances in artificial intelligence and robot planning. The objective of the competition is to test the agility of industrial robot systems, with the goal of enabling industrial robots on the shop floors to be more productive, more autonomous, and to require less time from shop floor workers. This video demonstrates how competing teams addressed different challenges during their kit building objectives.


 

Enabling Agility in Industrial Robotic Applications
Enabling Agility in Industrial Robotic Applications

Enabling Agility in Industrial Robotic Applications
In this video, two robots from different companies are performing independent kitting operations. The two robots have fundamentally different underlying programming languages. One robot enters a simulated error state. The second robot is dynamically retasked to complete the first robot’s task by using the NIST-developed Canonical Robot Command Language (CRCL). The robot does so without any human interaction. Once completed, the robot goes back to completing its own task.


 

Robotic Hand Performance Testing
Robotic Hand Performance Testing

Robotic Hand Performance Testing
Next-generation robotic hand technologies will help to reduce the costs of custom robotic tooling through their flexibility and dexterity for handling a large variety of part geometries and manufacturing operations.  NIST supports these emerging technologies by providing performance measurement tools that in the short term are used to benchmark research and in the long term will help integrators and end-users select the best robotic hand technology to meet their application needs.  Robotic hands have various key characteristics that are fundamental to their real-world performance. This video illustrates several recently developed test methods that measure these traits, including finger strength, grasp strength, slip resistance, touch sensitivity, force tracking, and manipulation. Performing these tests reveal insights into the hand’s strength, lightness of touch, and ability to perform dexterous in-hand manipulation of objects.


 

Impact of Robotic Hand on Pick-and-Place Performance
Impact of Robotic Hand on Pick-and-Place Performance

Impact of Robotic Hand on Pick-and-Place Performance
NIST is developing metrics and test methods to benchmark the performance of robotic systems when performing manufacturing tasks.  Here, the speed and dexterity of pick-and-place robotic systems are assessed using a variant of the Minnesota Dexterity Test, a test designed to measure human capability for relatively simple hand-eye coordination. This video demonstrates a slight modification to the original displacement test, where puck-like objects are displaced one-by-one across the entirety of the board and placement accuracy is quantified via a set of concentric circles that indicate a target zone. With completion time and placement accuracy as the principal measures of performance, a robotic system conducts the test with two different robotic hands to quantify and compare their effects on the overall system performance.


 

Comparative Peg-in-Hole Testing of Robotic Hand and Gripper
Comparative Peg-in-Hole Testing of Robotic Hand and Gripper

Comparative Peg-in-Hole Testing of Robotic Hand and Gripper
NIST is developing metrics and test methods to benchmark the performance of robotic systems when performing manufacturing tasks.  The ability to perform simple insertions is critical for robotic systems in manufacturing. This video reveals a simple peg-in-hole test designed to measure a robotic system’s capability for performing these simple insertions. In this case, the robotic system is outfitted with two different end-effectors – a robotic hand and a robotic gripper – to study the performance of next-generation robotic hand technology versus conventional parallel gripper technologies.


 

Coordinated assembly in a heterogeneous robotic work cell
Coordinated assembly in a heterogeneous robotic work cell

Coordinated assembly in a heterogeneous robotic work cell
Multiple robots are programmed to complete a complex kitting, part transfer, and assembly operation. The work cell consists of five robots from different manufacturers, and are controlled using NIST-proprietary software for coordination such that they all operate in the same coordinate system. Parts are picked from feeders and placed into a kit tray. That kit tray is then transferred to a second work cell via hand-offs between robots. At the second work cell, the parts are then removed from the kit tray and physically mated to form a final assembly. Once the assembly is completed, the part is returned to the kit tray, and returned to the first work cell, where it is removed, and the kit tray is reset. The process then restarts with a new assembly.


 

Navigation Test Method
Navigation Test Method

Navigation Test Method
ASTMF45.02 developed a test method for A-UGVs to navigate within defined spaces.  This video demonstrates an early set of tests using an Automatic-UGV (AGV) to navigate within a defined space.  The space was continuously made more narrow to measure when the vehicle deviated from the commanded path and the vehicle stopped when the on board safety sensors detected the defined space barriers. The navigation in defined space standard was modified to include defined space shapes and pass/fail criteria for each set of repetitions with barrier spacing chosen by the requester. [No audio]


 

Docking Test Method
Docking Test Method

Docking Test Method
ASTMF45.02 developed a test method for A-UGVs to dock to fixed equipment. This video demonstrates an early set of tests using a fork-style Automatic-UGV (AGV-automatic guided vehicle) to navigate to an apparatus with targets. The fork tines were raised and lowered to align with the targets on the frame. Also, two points extended from the A-UGV side were aligned with the frame mocking up the scenario of aligning a unit-load vehicle to a tray station. The docking work item is currently being drafted and may differ from the video. [No audio]


 

Training Video for Exoskeleton Study
Training Video for Exoskeleton Study
Created June 2, 2017, Updated July 7, 2020