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The use of industrial robots in the advanced countries of the world is growing. Whilst generally the concept of a robot is taken as a highly versatile human‐like device the term also extends to include much simpler devices of the pick‐and‐place type with a fixed sequence of events and these form by far the largest proportion of the world's robot population. Whilst they lack versatility in themselves they often form part of a much more complex automatic system in which some degree of flexibility is required. In addition they must operate at their optimum rate whilst being fail‐safe in operation. The design of a suitable control system to meet such demands particularly when a number of such devices and the primary process machinery have to be interlinked can be solved with the aid of sequential switching theory.

The present designs of industrial robots or mechanical handling units generally fall into two categories, the simple pick‐and‐place units with two fixed positions per axis, or the more sophisticated type such as Unimate with a very large number of positions per axis and a large memory. Whilst the latter devices are essential for complex operations such as spot welding, paint spraying or palletising there are many applications where only a small number of positions per axis are required, e.g. press loading, conveyor transferring, assembly operations. This paper describes a positioning system that falls between the above two general categories in that it allows a number of positions on each axis to be selected. A detailed description is given of the positioning system which basically consists of a number of mechanical stops attached to indexable bars such that there are a minimum number of 6 positions per axis. These stops are positioned as required and include a fine positioning adjustment. It is found that this system gives a positioning accuracy far greater than those commonly used with robots. The design of the hydraulic system and the control system for the fast to slow traverse are given together with test results obtained from a prototype system. The method of programming and the advantages and disadvantages are specified in a final discussion. In particular how the system can be used in fairly complex operations such as palletising is discussed.

Industrial robots have become an accepted form of automation for many companies in Western Europe. The multi robot car assembly line is now the rule rather than the exception and this type of application has advanced the state of acceptance of robots as a viable form of automation. But what is the future in other areas and is the industrial robot an economic proposition in less glamorous areas? A recent visit to Sweden, with a few calls in West Germany, revealed a surprisingly wide range of applications for the industrial robot and none more so than in the production work shops of the robot manufacturers themselves. In Sweden high wage rates and strict laws on health and safety at work provide the type of incentive that is conducive to investments in robot automation. But even in this environment robots have to work hard to be economic. They invariably work on two or three shifts and in many applications perform numerous tasks.

MISS ANNE SHAW's presence on the platform at the annual general meeting of the Management Consultants Association was a solid assurance that work study still lies within its scope. The initial impression was weakened, however, when the chairman, Mr. D. J. Nicolson, mentioned that the bulk of consultancy work was no longer concerned with work study. Instead, it gave more than half its attention to policymaking and the broad aspects of organising financial, manufacturing and marketing resources.

IN the 25 years that this journal has been published the whole aspect of work study has changed. Once it was time and motion study. Today it is indeed more close to our title: WORK STUDY. For the plain fact is that the job we cover and expound is now the whole gamut of the study of every aspect of work. No longer is this confined to methods of getting more work (admittedly with less fatigue) out of the hours actually worked. Today the accent is on worker participation and job satisfaction.

The modern concept of the industrial robot revolves around the notion of a “general purpose” or “universal” machine. This notion has recently been given a considerable boost by the ability of microelectronics to provide control and memory devices of unprecedented capacity and flexibility.

Problems in the application of industrial robots for the handling of workpieces in small series production and in assembly arise from the gripper's structure among other things. The differences in form and weight of the workpieces make it impossible in most cases to apply a single traditional gripper for all workpieces to be handled in one installation.

A finite‐element model for calculating the die temperature profile for a hot‐forging operation is presented. The workpiece is modelled as a thermo‐viscoplastic material, while the dies are considered undeformable. Heat transfer between the dies and the workpiece is modelled using an iteratively coupled, fixed‐point calculation of the temperature in each domain. Transfer of temperature boundary conditions across contact interfaces is performed for non‐coincident meshes, using a boundary integration point contact analysis. Two industrial‐type examples are presented. In the first example, the effectiveness of the transfer of the temperature boundary conditions for a non steady‐state forging process is evaluated and determined to be satisfactory. Then weakly‐ and strongly‐coupled temperature resolutions are compared. It was found that the strongly‐coupled resolution may be necessary in order to obtain reasonably accurate results. In the second example, the weakly‐coupled resolution is compared to a constant‐temperature die approach for a relatively slow forging process, which shows the influence of the die temperature on the flow of the material.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of the government's role in boosting the utilization of intelligent robot by considering government support policies along with various other factors, which are potentially influential. This type of investigation will contribute for developing a domestic robot infrastructure in Korea.

A structural equation model is used to investigate the relation among various factors that have a potential influence on robot utilization. In addition, the Robot Utilization Expectation Index of various user groups is developed. The results obtained from the proposed model are expected to provide important feedback information for productivity innovation at the level of both the individual user and the company.

According to the results, the robot function has the highest direct effect on the Robot Utilization Expectation, but excessive policies implemented simultaneously by the Korean Government are not effective on revitalization of the robot industry. It is interesting to note that government policy has the highest indirect effect on robot utilization expectation. Therefore, it is proposed that the government should act as a mediator and focus on fewer policies rather than enforcing various policies simultaneously by different organizations.

Although, a focused group consisting of those who are knowledgeable about intelligent robots is surveyed, a limitation to the paper lies in analyzing a relatively small data set. An extended survey with a larger data set remains for future study.

The paper includes implications, which contribute towards stimulating the robot industry in Korea.

The proposed model is expected to provide important information for productivity innovation at both the individual user and company levels.

A new type of high‐level robot command library is presented, which can be viewed as a marriage between simulation and control. The library commands contain simulations of the physical abilities of the robots as well as having the ability to control the physical machinery. The control of the machinery is performed by translating parameter information and then mapping the library commands to the robot controller commands. To demonstrate the use of the libraries, two robot programming languages have been analysed and new robot command libraries created for two types of machine. The robots selected were a Fanuc A600 and a Unimation PUMA robot. The paper also presents criteria that were used for assessing programming languages for use in programming and controlling robots. The paper shows how simulation can be incorporated into a high‐level robot command library (or object library) and how the command library can be used for the programming of industrial robots. The work has demonstated the advantages of including simulation within robot command libraries. The purpose of the research has not been to define another new robot command library, and the techniques presented here can be applied to other robot languages and high level robot command libraries.