Assembly Automation: Volume 33 Issue 1

Automation pushes the envelope of postal mail handling efficiency

Richard Bloss

The purpose of this paper is to review the impact automation is having on improving the efficiency of handling all types of mail.

Fully flexible assembly systems (F‐FAS): a new concept in flexible automation

Giulio Rosati, Maurizio Faccio, Andrea Carli, Aldo Rossi

Flexible automated assembly is an emerging need in several industries. The purpose of this paper is to address the introduction of an innovative concept in flexible assembly: the…

Real‐time integration of prototypes in the product development process

Bingjian Liu, R.I. Campbell, Eujin Pei

The purpose of this paper is to identify the strengths and weaknesses associated with physical and virtual prototyping and propose an approach that utilises a real‐time…

Determining the most probable natural resting orientation of sector shaped parts

S. Udhayakumar, P.V. Mohanram, P. Keerthi Anand, R. Srinivasan

Identifying the most probable natural resting orientation of a part, in automatic handling, helps in the effective design of feeder and orientation devices. For parts with complex…

Basic behaviour control of the vision‐based cognitive robotic disassembly automation

Supachai Vongbunyong, Sami Kara, Maurice Pagnucco

The purpose of this paper is to develop an automated disassembly cell that is flexible and robust to the physical variations of a product. In this way it is capable of dealing…

An automatic optical inspection system for measuring a microlens array with an optical interferometric microscope and genetic algorithm

Shih‐Wei Yang, Chern‐Sheng Lin, Shir‐Kuan Lin, Shu‐Hsien Fu, Mau‐Shiun Yeh

The purpose of this paper is to propose an automatic optical inspection system for measuring the surface profile of a microlens array.

A review of virtual reality and haptics for product assembly (part 1): rigid parts

PingJun Xia, António M. Lopes, Maria Teresa Restivo

Virtual reality (VR) for product assembly has been studied for more than 20 years but its practical application in industry is still very much in its infancy. Haptics is a new and…

Intelligent disassembly planning: a review on its fundamental methodology

Hui Wang, Dong Xiang, Yiming Rong, Linxuan Zhang

The purpose of this paper is to review the fundamental methodology and its development of intelligent disassembly planning research.

Identifying sources of variation in horizontal stabilizer assembly using finite element analysis and principal component analysis

Hua Wang, Xin Ding

The purpose of this paper is to propose a method to identify sources of variation in horizontal stabilizer assembly using FEA (finite element analysis) and PCA (principal…