Outlines the development of new automated assembly methods for the automotive industry currently being undertaken by ABB Flexible Powertrain Assembly GmbH based in Langenfeld, Germany. Describes the application of these jointed‐arm robots in Audi’s plant in Györ, Hungary and illustrates the...

The application of vision is providing the automotive industry with greater flexibility. Examines applications in both machine guidance and inspection. Examples of robot guidance from windscreen insertion using 2D data to painting of car bodies, which requires 3D vision. Inspection examples are...

Reports on the Eurobot exhibition which took place in Frankfurt, Germany in December 1996. States that in spite of being a disappointingly small event with few non‐German exhibitors the exhibition did demonstrate that robotics is still being actively researched. Describes some of the robots on...

Reports on the UK Mechatronics Forum Conference held in Minho, Portugal, in September 1996. Outlines the major themes and focuses on those papers most relevant to industrial robotics, giving brief details of the content of the papers.

States that intelligent manufacture requires robots to be quickly reprogrammed and reconfigured to differing manufacturing requirements. Key to this is the control system architecture. Proposes a control system utilizing three networks suitable for time critical, fast messaging and high...

States that manufacturing lines cannot be used for production during commissioning and that it is therefore always the goal to reduce the necessary efforts to a maximum extent. Starts with a description of the state‐of‐the‐art in this field based on the situation in the automotive...

The principles of agile manufacturing are being used to demonstrate the feasibility of customized spaceframe vehicle manufacture using robotic cellular manufacturing. The concepts used are being validated using computer‐aided simulation and a full scale manufacturing cell. Areas of...

Presents the state‐of‐the‐art in industrial mobile robotics within Europe and how the future industrial requirements can best be satisfied. States that the focus for the development of mobile robotic vehicles has been in hazardous applications such as the nuclear industry, petrochemical...

There is a widespread belief that the global land‐mine problem can be solved using a combination of advanced robotics, sophisticated sensors and powerful computing devices. Recent research results suggest that this confidence is misplaced. There is little likelihood of sensing improvements in...

Describes two types of mobile robots designed for the US military. One is the mobile detection assessment response system (MDARS), which is an automated robotic security and inventory system capable of patrolling interior and exterior warehouses and storage sites for the Department of Defense....