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Article
Publication date: 2 September 2024

Li Shaochen, Zhenyu Liu, Yu Huang, Daxin Liu, Guifang Duan and Jianrong Tan

Assembly action recognition plays an important role in assembly process monitoring and human-robot collaborative assembly. Previous works overlook the interaction relationship…

Abstract

Purpose

Assembly action recognition plays an important role in assembly process monitoring and human-robot collaborative assembly. Previous works overlook the interaction relationship between hands and operated objects and lack the modeling of subtle hand motions, which leads to a decline in accuracy for fine-grained action recognition. This paper aims to model the hand-object interactions and hand movements to realize high-accuracy assembly action recognition.

Design/methodology/approach

In this paper, a novel multi-stream hand-object interaction network (MHOINet) is proposed for assembly action recognition. To learn the hand-object interaction relationship in assembly sequence, an interaction modeling network (IMN) comprising both geometric and visual modeling is exploited in the interaction stream. The former captures the spatial location relation of hand and interacted parts/tools according to their detected bounding boxes, and the latter focuses on mining the visual context of hand and object at pixel level through a position attention model. To model the hand movements, a temporal enhancement module (TEM) with multiple convolution kernels is developed in the hand stream, which captures the temporal dependences of hand sequences in short and long ranges. Finally, assembly action prediction is accomplished by merging the outputs of different streams through a weighted score-level fusion. A robotic arm component assembly dataset is created to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed method.

Findings

The method can achieve the recognition accuracy of 97.31% and 95.32% for coarse and fine assembly actions, which outperforms other comparative methods. Experiments on human-robot collaboration prove that our method can be applied to industrial production.

Originality/value

The author proposes a novel framework for assembly action recognition, which simultaneously leverages the features of hands, objects and hand-object interactions. The TEM enhances the representation of dynamics of hands and facilitates the recognition of assembly actions with various time spans. The IMN learns the semantic information from hand-object interactions, which is significant for distinguishing fine assembly actions.

Details

Robotic Intelligence and Automation, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2754-6969

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 18 April 2008

Ramazan Yaman

This study seeks to present a simple assembly line design and its balance for a low‐volume manufacturing company.

2039

Abstract

Purpose

This study seeks to present a simple assembly line design and its balance for a low‐volume manufacturing company.

Design/methodology/approach

The study presents experiences with the design and implementation of a simple assembly line. The implementation concerns three aspects; design and construction of the assembly line, the assembly analysis of the product, and then balancing of the line. It also discusses construction and implementation difficulties of this tactical tool in the case company.

Findings

The study presents some outcomes from the design, implementation, and balancing of an assembly line for SMEs.

Research limitations/implications

The study is limited by the case company and its experience.

Practical implications

This study is not pure theoretical study, it has application stages for industry, and it provides some real interface for the people from SMEs.

Originality/value

The approach has an original value in respect of implementation of assembly line for a small manufacturing company which has many limitations.

Details

Assembly Automation, vol. 28 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0144-5154

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 March 1984

S. Kähler

A paper presented at the Paris Assembly Automation conference dealt with a typical project concerning assembly automation of an LPG gas valve which had not been designed for…

Abstract

A paper presented at the Paris Assembly Automation conference dealt with a typical project concerning assembly automation of an LPG gas valve which had not been designed for automatic assembly. A series of suggestions for design modifications were proposed with the purpose of simplifying assembly.

Details

Assembly Automation, vol. 4 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0144-5154

Article
Publication date: 2 October 2007

Mozafar Saadat, Roy Sim and Farid Najafi

This paper aims to present a method for predicting dimensional variation in assembly processes of a wingbox structure concentrating on the assembly of skin panels to rib feet.

1172

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to present a method for predicting dimensional variation in assembly processes of a wingbox structure concentrating on the assembly of skin panels to rib feet.

Design/methodology/approach

Finite element modelling and experimental tests are conducted on the rib structure based on the site measurement gathered from the Airbus assembly factory.

Findings

The results have shown that the simulated model has the capability of predicting to an acceptable degree of accuracy the overall geometrical variations of the ribs and skin panels, as well as the positional variations of each individual rib foot.

Originality/value

The authors believe that no previous research has offered a similar prediction method for large aerostructures.

Details

Assembly Automation, vol. 27 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0144-5154

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 February 1988

R. Bäβler

THE increasing pressure of national and international competition is forcing firms to rationalise even further, especially in the field of assembly. In order to perform assembly

Abstract

THE increasing pressure of national and international competition is forcing firms to rationalise even further, especially in the field of assembly. In order to perform assembly tasks with the least possible expenditure of time, assembly facilities, space requirements and personnel, it has become necessary to include these objectives in the development stage of the product. Therefore, assembly‐oriented design now provides a good opportunity for rationalisation.

Details

Assembly Automation, vol. 8 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0144-5154

Article
Publication date: 1 September 2000

Peter Gröndahl and Mauro Onori

The Assembly Systems Unit at the Royal Institute of Technology and IVF Stockholm has developed several Flexible Automatic Assembly (FAA) cell solutions over the years (Mark I…

Abstract

The Assembly Systems Unit at the Royal Institute of Technology and IVF Stockholm has developed several Flexible Automatic Assembly (FAA) cell solutions over the years (Mark I, Mark II, Mark IIF and Mark III). The industrial reality, however, clearly points out that the basic notions of flexibility must be extended and be enhanced without increasing the complexity. This has led our research team to revise the ideas and solutions available for manual and automatic assembly, resulting in the Hyper Flexible Automatic Assembly (HFAA) project. The paper describes the driving factors behind the needs and objectives for the HFAA project, as well as how it will present a standardised set of assembly process‐oriented system components. The paper also describes the new Mark IV application. This industrial HFAA system is being developed in order to test the concept’s industrial viability. The HFAA concept will allow the user to start from a manual assembly station and gradually add assembly equipment. The basic concepts of stepwise automation, standard assembly machine and sub‐batch principle emanate from our previous research.

Details

Assembly Automation, vol. 20 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0144-5154

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 March 2001

Juhani Heilala and Paavo Voho

Market turbulence forces assembly plants to constantly adjust their production volume of products, variants and quantities. At the same time, assembly plant managers must protect…

3231

Abstract

Market turbulence forces assembly plants to constantly adjust their production volume of products, variants and quantities. At the same time, assembly plant managers must protect long‐term investments in the flexible assembly system. For reconfigurability and agility the best solution is the modular semi‐automatic approach by combining flexible automation and human skills. It gives managers possibility to adjust volume by adding new modules or to automate the manual tasks step by step. The control of material handling and information flow in the agile assembly system is important. To keep flexibility, the combination of an intelligent pallet, i.e. use of escort memory, carrying a single product together with other hardware providing paperless production even supports a lot size of one. The article shows how to create flexible capability and capacity in the final assembly systems.

Details

Assembly Automation, vol. 21 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0144-5154

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 March 1982

B. Gondocs and T. Kovacs

To improve the flexibility of its assembly methods the Bakony Works in Hungary took out a manufacturing licence with Bosch. Some examples of where the system has been used are…

Abstract

To improve the flexibility of its assembly methods the Bakony Works in Hungary took out a manufacturing licence with Bosch. Some examples of where the system has been used are described.

Details

Assembly Automation, vol. 2 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0144-5154

Article
Publication date: 1 April 1986

B. Lotter

The dividing line between the sensible and efficient use of assembly robots and that of dedicated automatic assembly machines requires detailed planning.

Abstract

The dividing line between the sensible and efficient use of assembly robots and that of dedicated automatic assembly machines requires detailed planning.

Details

Assembly Automation, vol. 6 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0144-5154

Article
Publication date: 1 April 1978

P.F. Rogers

As competition grows in the robot field and as more sophisticated applications emerge, it has become necessary to accurately predict robot cycle time. Especially in the area of…

Abstract

As competition grows in the robot field and as more sophisticated applications emerge, it has become necessary to accurately predict robot cycle time. Especially in the area of robot assembly applications, it is necessary to estimate times to balance multi‐arm systems and to economically compare robot assembly systems to alternate methods. Using the Unimate 6000 robot system as a model and manual time methods as a guide, a robot time and motion method is developed. Three time estimating methods are discussed starting with a simple, approximate one and finishing with a detailed, accurate one. All three methods can be adapted for use with applications other than assembly and will be further evaluated in the future with other robot systems.

Details

Industrial Robot: An International Journal, vol. 5 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0143-991X

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