Roboshow

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.



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

Sponsors
The University of Idaho, Departments of Mechanical, Electrical and Computer Engineering are sponsoring our project. This senior design project is being funded by these departments at UI. The robotic workstations will have future use for research and other applications within the departments.

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.

Team Experience
 Our Team 







Design Goals
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.

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”

Current Design
 The current design uses two identical sides. 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.

Options
Safety light curtain

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 current design has the enclosure separate into two identical halves. The enclosure can be split multiple ways to fit on the elevator though. Another way is to have 3 pieces as shown on the right. One larger piece holds the robot arm and two smaller pieces are the sides with the enclosure walls and doors.

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 if someone tried to get something in over the top.

Wheel or no wheel?

Currently we are using a lot of wheels. An option is just have it lifted by a jack and transported. Getting rid of the wheels would improve stability but might hurt mobility.

Multiple safety redundancies

We do want multiple fail-safes but we haven't decided how much. Having a light curtain inside an enclosure of polycarbonate might be a waste.