Robotic Workstation

The Roboshow Senior Design team is tasked with designing the safety enclosure and workstation for one of the Denso robots to showcase the robots capabilities to students, faculty and visitors and provide a safe and reliable research platform for advancing robotic technologies.

Background
In the spring of 2013, The Boeing Company donated multiple Denso robot arms to the College of Engineering of the University of Idaho. These lightweight, compact robots are designed for a wide-range of industrial and manufacturing applications. A description of Denso’s VS-G series can be found here: http://www.densorobotics.com/products/vs-g-series/features. The Mechanical Engineering department is currently exploring ways in which to incorporate these robots in the curriculum and to make them available for academic and sponsored research. During the first stage of this process, the Mechanical Engineering department is looking to grow its institutional knowledge through the development of a mobile robotic research station.

Design Task
The task is to design and build a portable industrial robot research station featuring a Denso Robotic Arm. The completed design should include a mobile platform for the robot arm, including a transparent safety enclosure, an installed and tested teaching pendent and controller software, and a manufactured end-effector for use in a demonstration of the robot’s capabilities We are tasked to design a safety enclosure that conforms to industrial best practices and applicable standards and demonstrates relevant academic and research activities during high visibility university events.

Future Goals
The construction the Denso robot enclosure will have a lasting influence on the engineering department. The robot can be used for applied coursework in undergraduate classes such as Robotic Kinematics and Control Systems. The workstation will also be used as a graduate research platform. The graduate researchers could use the hardware in numerous applications ranging from control systems to industrial applications.

The station will also become a main destination for tours of perspective students, visiting faculty and on special events such as Vandal Friday or Expo. The demonstrations from the robots will showcase the arm’s abilities as well as generate excitement about engineering and encourage students to enroll in the engineering department.

Team Experience
 Our Team 







Enclosure Design
Relatively mobile Multiple Safety redundancies Modular Integrated controller storage Expandable to multiple robots Fit within freight elevator Arm must fully extend in x,y, and z directions without collision
 * Have wheels or ability to be transported
 * Easy to move, and disassemble
 * Door Switches, Light Curtain, Protective glass/wire mesh, and emergency stop button
 * Easy to replicate for future projects and combine with other enclosures
 * Industrial electronic storage box, RC7 controller mount
 * Storage under enclosure
 * Max dimensions to fit are 46”x84”x78”
 * Full extension should include length of the end effector
 * Arm X and Y radius is 34”
 * Arm max height is 43”

Parts
Robot Controls Enclosure Materials

Current Safety Features

Previous Safety Features

Testing
Since we haven't finalized the enclosure design yet the only testing has been on the robotic arm. We wired the the safety controls have been running it in a controlled environment. W3of6_OytOM

Current Design
3 Piece Design



The three piece design has one main piece and two side pieces. The main piece is larger and holds the robot as well as the electronic equipment below the robot platform. The two side pieces hang on opposite sides of the central piece. The sides are attached as shown with the bolt holding it.As with other designs the doors are wire mesh with polycarbonate sides for viewing.The design is simple and uses fewer parts. Fewer parts make disassembling and regular maintenance easy.

Previous Designs
Two Piece Design

 Our first conceptual design was the two piece design.The two piece design uses two identical sides to make up the enclosure. Separation of the enclosure is needed to fit on the service elevator for transport. The partitions are depicted above. The robot is affixed to both sides in the center.The front and back use polycarbonate sheets and a wire mesh is used for the doors. The lower portion of the design will store the controller and safety equipment on one side. The other side can store objects for demonstration such as an armature. Caster wheels are used on the bottom.

Collapsible Design



The collapsible design is made of one central piece with two attached sides. The design is similar to the 3 piece, but instead of having sides that can be removed, the sides collapse to minimize space. The sides also have supports that reach the ground instead of hanging, but still remove the shelving on the lower portion. 

Options
Safety light curtain

We have decided that the light curtain was not cost effective for the project but it may be beneficial for other projects.The safety light curtain can be used to have a completely open viewing area on one side of the enclosure. A problem is if the robot is manipulating an object the curtain can't stop the object if it is thrown past. To fix this, we can use a detachable polycarbonate sheet when objects are being used otherwise leave it off.

Separation of enclosure

The enclosure needs to separate or at least minimize because the full expanded enclosure can't fit in the service elevator.

Top of enclosure

The top of the enclosure will likely be a simple mesh covering. The top shouldn't interfere with visibility, but a top is needed to keep objects out.

Base

We have decided to use legs instead of wheels however there are some tradeoffs. The base design can use wheels or just legs on the ground. With wheels, the enclosure can be pushed around anywhere. Another option is just have it lifted by a jack and transported. Getting rid of the wheels would improve stability but might hurt mobility since some parts would need to be carried until we got them to a jack.

Multiple safety redundancies

We do want multiple fail-safes but we don't want to design to the extreme so even a child could operate it. We could use safety procedures to supplement a lack of automatic safety checking. For example, instead of having magnetic switches on the sides we can just have the operator perform safety checks on the sides.