Automated flexible robotic circuit board assembler

Author

Liebes, Sidney, Jr. ; Gong, William ; Gray, Alexander J. ; Martins, Henrique ; Modesitt, Bruce ; Tella, Richard

Author_Institution

Hewlett-Packard Lab., Palo Alto, CA, USA

Volume

9

Issue

2

fYear

1989

Firstpage

9

Lastpage

14

Abstract

The FLAIR (flexible assembly intelligent robot) workcell loads both through-hole and surface-mount odd-shaped components onto printed circuit boards. The workcell is completely data-driven, handles diverse boards in arbitrary batch sizes, and uses computer vision to examine components and boards. It incorporates sensor-based error detection and recovery, generic parts feeders, general-purpose lead straightening, and lead clinching. Cameras and robot are calibrated automatically. Although constituting a significant advance in functionality, the workcell requires trained engineering support.<>

Keywords

assembling; computer vision; industrial robots; manufacturing computer control; printed circuit manufacture; FLAIR; PCB manufacture; calibration; circuit board assembler; computer vision; data-driven workcell; error recovery; flexible assembly intelligent robot; generic parts feeders; lead clinching; lead straightening; sensor-based error detection; surface-mount odd-shaped components; through-hole components; Capacitors; Computer vision; Connectors; Flexible printed circuits; Intelligent robots; Packaging; Printed circuits; Robot sensing systems; Robotic assembly; Robotics and automation;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Control Systems Magazine, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0272-1708

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/37.16765

Filename

16765