Analysis of the performance of robotic assembly systems considering the usage of tools or jigs for the task-board task in the WRS 2018

AbstractA task-board task is a task in which robots perform a set of fundamental assembly operations related to the assembly of a specific product such as inserting a part into another part, tightening bolts and nuts, attaching flexible parts, etc. In the task-board task competition in the industrial robotics category of the World Robot Summit (WRS) 2018, 15 teams from around the world performed the task. In our previous work, we observed recorded videos of the competition frame by frame and manually investigated the performance of robotic systems of the top four teams, focusing only on whether robots contact target parts. In this paper, we introduce frame sets to represent mainly contact states between robots, tools, or jigs and target parts to be handled for such a frame-by-frame analysis of the recorded videos, and based on the frame sets, we analyze the performance of robotic assembly systems of other teams as well as the top four teams in the task-board task competition in the WRS 2018, considering the usage of tools or jigs.Keywords: Task-board taskrobotic assembly systemWorld Robot Summit AcknowledgementsThe authors would like to express their gratitude to everyone involved in the design and operation of the Assembly Challenge in the Industrial Robotics Category, the WRS 2018, especially those who greatly contributed to the competition as referees and health and safety inspectors.Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Notes1 Note that strictly speaking, analysis with films is called ‘film analysis’.2 The video is not open to the public unlike those available on the official YouTube channel of the WRS [Citation28].3 In the task-board task competition, not the tightening torque but only the amount of rotation of each of these parts was evaluated. In that case, the tightening of parts 7-1, 7-2, 8, 12, and 13 can be achieved even by human hand itself (without using the tools) whereas part 11 is hard to handle due to its small size.4 No clear picture of the electric screwdriver can be extracted from either the video recorded by the competition committee or [Citation28], but a clear one is given in [Citation29].5 In [Citation22], a cylindrical part with a diameter which is equal to or greater than its length is treated as a non-cylindrical part.Additional informationFundingThis work is based on results obtained from a project commissioned by the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO)[P17004] and was supported by Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) KAKENHI Grant Number JP21K03978.Notes on contributorsHiroki DobashiHiroki Dobashi received the BS, MS, and PhD degrees in mechanical engineering from Kyoto University in 2007, 2009, and 2012, respectively. From 2012 to 2013, he was a contract assistant at School of Science and Technology, Kwansei Gakuin University. From 2013 to 2017, he was an assistant professor in the Department of Robotics, Faculty of Science and Engineering, Ritsumeikan University. From 2017 to 2023, he was a lecturer in the Department of Systems Engineering, Faculty of Systems Engineering, Wakayama University. He is currently an associate professor in the department, Wakayama University. His current research interests are robotic manipulation for manufacturing and logistics. He is a member of the Robotics Society of Japan (RSJ), the Society of Instrument and Control Engineers (SICE, Japan), the Institute of Systems, Control and Information Engineers (ISCIE, Japan), the Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers (JSME), and the IEEE. He was a member of the Industrial Robotics Competition Committee, the World Robot Summit.Koki OgawaKoki Ogawa received the BS degree in systems engineering from Wakayama University in 2022. Since 2022, he has been a master course student at Graduate School of Systems Engineering, Wakayama University. His current research interest is robotic manipulation for manufacturing. He received the Best Session Presentation Award of the 23rd SICE System Integration Division Annual Conference.Mizuho ShibataMizuho Shibata received the PhD degree in mechanical engineering from Ritsumeikan University in 2006. He is currently an associate professor in the Department of Robotics, Faculty of Engineering, Kindai University, Japan. His current research interests are the development of applications in soft robotics. He was a member of the Industrial Robotics Competition Committee, the World Robot Summit.Wataru UemuraWataru Uemura received the BE, ME, and DE degrees from Osaka City University, in 2000, 2002, and 2005, respectively. He is an associate professor in Electronics, Information and Communication Engineering Course, Faculty of Advanced Science and Technology, Ryukoku University in Shiga, Japan. He is a member of IEEE, RoboCup, and others. He is an executive director of the RoboCup Japanese National Committee. He was a member of the Industrial Robotics Competition Committee, the World Robot Summit.Yasuyoshi YokokohjiYasuyoshi Yokokohji received the BS and MS degrees in precision engineering in 1984 and 1986, respectively, and PhD degree in mechanical engineering in 1991, all from Kyoto University. From 1988 to 1989, he was a research associate in the Automation Research Laboratory, Kyoto University. From 1989 to 1992, he was a research associate in the Division of Applied Systems Science, Faculty of Engineering, Kyoto University. From 1992 to 2005, he was an associate professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Kyoto University. From 2005 to 2009, he was an associate professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Science, Graduate School of Engineering, Kyoto University. From 1994 to 1996, he was a visiting research scholar at the Robotics Institute, Carnegie Mellon University. Since 2009, he has been a professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Graduate School of Engineering, Kobe University. His current research interests are robotics and virtual reality including teleoperation systems, robot hands, and haptic interfaces. He is a fellow of the Robotics Society of Japan (RSJ), the Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers (JSME), and the Society of Instrument and Control Engineers (SICE, Japan), and a member of the Institute of Systems, Control and Information Engineers (ISCIE, Japan), the Virtual Reality Society of Japan, and the IEEE (Senior Member). He was a chairperson of the Industrial Robotics Competition Committee, the World Robot Summit.