26 — Friday, October 2, 1992 - North Shore News

“AUTOMOTIVE |

Industrial robots do automakers’ dirty work

ROBOTS SOLVE all pro-
duction headaches.

They are absolutely trouble
free, and can work 24 hours a
day, seven days a week without
stopping. Robots can handle any
tasks given to them, no matter
how difficult. Robots replace
human workers, since they are
capable of doing everything a
human worker dees. Finally, they
‘are cute, have feet, legs, hands,
and arms. .

If you agree with any of these
statements, you just failed the
“Truth Behind Robots’ test.

Contrary to what you may have
heard, robots are not super
machines capable of solving all
production problems in an
automotive plant. They are part
of the automated equipment,
albeit very complicated and high-
tech in nature, that improve pro-
duction efficiency significantly by
handling heavy, difficult, or
tedious tasks.

I remember disappointing some
of my friends when I showed
them the pictures of industrial
robots. One of them said, ‘‘These
are robots? Boy, are they ever
boring-looking! Where are the
arms and legs?’’

Sorry. Industrial robots are
machines after all, and their ap-
pearance is governed by the func-
tionality of the system, not by
how much attention they can get
from the visitors. :

On the other: hand, don’t

David
Chao

OVERDRIVE

assume that these robots are bor-
ing pieces of machinery that sim-
ply repeat the same function over
and over again.

At the Diamond Star Motors in
INinois, where the Eagle Talon
and Plymouth Lasers are built,
some of the robots’ respon-
sibilities in the final assembly area
include installing seats, wind-
shields, doors, dashes, spare tires
and even filling up various fluids.

Watching the robots install
doors is especially interesting. The
robot first grabs the heavy door,

and swings it towards the car. As-

the door is slowly placed against
the car, the robot wiggles the door
up and down, left and right, until

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Daylian Rousseau and

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Mitch Bakes and Alysa Fair-

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Baker, finishing first overall

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The scholarships are intense

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license while |

six or seven week courses
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Anyone between the ages of
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cadets.

The North‘ Vancouver
squadron meets every Wednes-
day from 6:30 p.m. to 9:30
p.m. at 1513 Forbes Ave.,
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For more information, call
987-8318.

Steering problems occur when your power steering
~ fluid becomes contaminated. The high pressure and
extreme heat the system is subjected to contributes
to angoing oxidation. Metal particles can wear the
gears or rack and the hydraulic piston assembly,
Help avoid costly replacements by having our
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Call us today for an appointment —

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&4 With an accuracy of 0.5 mm or less
robots spot-weld somewhere between
2,000 and 4,000 points per car...99

the door hinge holes line up with
the holes in the car’s body. -

This is all done automatically
by using a complicated camera-
computer system which detects
holes and can tell when they are
lined up on top of each other.

Now the second robot comes
into play. It carefully, but very
quickly, aligns the bolts, then
tightens them so that the door is
now installed precisely onto the
handsome-looking Talon.

Both robots are constantly talk-
ing to each other electronically, so
that one will not perform a task
until the other gives the go-ahead.

A somewhat similar camera/
robotic system at General
Motors-Suzuki joint venture plant
in Ingersoll, Ontario, is pro-
grammed to measure the location
of holes, corners, and the surfaces
of the panels. The system checks
these dimensions against the orig-
inal specifications.

This $1 million robotic checking
system utilizes two Fanuc robots,
both equipped with a laser
distance-sensor, and a_ special
camera that takes ‘‘snapshots”’ of
the holes. An automatic focusing
device, pinpoints the exact location
of the hole and the location is re-
corded into the computer.

Programming a robot such as
this takes days, but it is: very
challenging and rewarding at the
same time. I held a number of
automotive engineering and in-
dustry-related jobs in the past,
including a product evaluation,
international strategic analysis,
and manufacturing. position, but
the most challenging job was
definitely ‘the automation and
robotics position 1 had at this

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During my stay there, I must
have programmed over ‘!00
robots, and I admit it’s not any-
thing like playing around with a
Radio Shack robot toy.

Most heavy and cumbersome
jobs. are handled by robots,

especially in the welding shop of a __

car manufacturing plant. Here, as
much as 95% of the welding is ac-
tually done by the robots.

A spot-welding gun can be as
large and as heavy as a human
adult, so you can see why these
tasks are best handled by the
$100,000 robots. With an accuracy
of 0.5 mm or less, these robots
spot-weld somewhere | between
2,000 and 4,000 points per car,
without ever sweating over them.

There are many other tasks that
robots can perform in an

automotive plant, but they cannot
do everything that a person does.

Robots, like cars, need proper
Maintenance and ‘‘tune-ups,’”
which are done by the skilled
trade workers.

Robots cannot supervise other
robots’ work, nor can they pro-
gram each other.

Because of the complexity of
the high-tech machines, engineers
and technicians must spend a con-
siderable amount of time learning
all the intricacies of maintaining
and programming them.

And finally, robots are not
flawless.

Since they are machines, they
do break down — although it is
uncommon for a major
breakdown to occur more than
once a year.

I still remember a_ situation
where two robots, for some
unknown reason, lost ‘‘contsct’’
with each other and crashed
head-on sending their arms flying
through the plant.

Perhaps it’s comforting to know
that even a $100,000 piece of ma-
chinery with an intelligent com-
puter ‘“‘brain’’ still needs to be.
cared for by people. .

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