Common Assembly Line Concept for Robotic End of Arm Tooling

When the visitor approaches the table, they will see a workstation set up to mimic a proposed workstation for production on the assembly line. This includes material sourcing containers with screws and bolts that would be necessary on the line. Some of the necessary hardware would be on the station including an automated torque wrench with software open for demonstration purposes by members of the group. A group member will explain the importance of the software in controlling the torque limits of the automatic wrench, and control over the number of bolts per production cycle on a station. This would also help to guide a discussion of automation integration, along with the pros and cons, on a production line including ergonomic considerations and cost savings analysis. There will be a television set up with a video explaining the basis for the project and showing simulation results. This will explain the software that was used for the basis of simulations and some of the resulting data that is acceptable to show to customers without divulging customer-specific information respecting the NDA for the project. This video will show the general trends of work time and productivity with varying levels of automation involved in the production process, as well as discuss how the stations varied between different product lines without discussing the products or specific clients themselves. Additionally, team members will be answering questions related to the assumptions made in driving the design simulations. Lastly, there will be an interactive activity with visitors to the exhibit where they will be performing an activity that simulates a task to be performed on an assembly line to highlight the importance of safety and efficiency in production. This activity will be open to people of all ages, adapted to be easier for children. The activity will just be doing a small assembly with toy parts so no safety risk is involved for participants. By having participants follow safety protocol, it shows the importance of ergonomic and safety considerations in our final design and in the final assembly process.