Adaptive Robotic Deburring of Sand Cast Parts

Abstract

This thesis presents a one-of-a-kind adaptive tool path generation for automatic deburring of sand cast parts using robots. Sand cast parts have geometric variations and excess material around the edges formed by the casting process. This excess material, referred to as burrs, need to be removed in order for the part to meet its design requirements, to secure accurate assembly, and to void hurting people on sharp edges. Today, the task of removing the burr is mainly performed manually, which introduces HSE concerns. Automating the process is challenging since the process must be adapted to each individual workpiece due to the geometric variations. For high-mix low-volume productions, automating the process is extra challenging since the setup time must be low to avoid a too high cost. This thesis aims to present a new pipeline and solutions that will enable automatic deburring of sand cast parts, also for high-mix low-volume productions. The thesis is a collection of two journal articles and three conference papers. The papers presents a pipeline of robotic deburring, explaining the necessary steps, and propose methods for several steps in the pipeline. The proposed methods are intended for setups where industrial robot manipulators are combined with 3D cameras. Experimental work have been conducted to test and validate the methods. The main contribution is a novel method for tool trajectory generation based on 3D scans. First, a 3D representation of the workpiece is generated based on scanning the workpiece with a camera mounted on the robot end-effector, followed by generating a tool trajectory based on this 3D representation. A new trajectory is generated for each workpiece and the method is therefore able to adapt to each individual workpiece.