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Procedia CIRP 23 (2014) 47 – 52

5th CATS 2014 - CIRPon

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AssemblyonTechnologies
Assembly Systems and Technologies
and Systems

Robotized assembly process using Dual arm robot

Panagiota Tsarouchia, Sotiris Makrisa, George Michalosa, Michael Stefosa, Konstantinos
Fourtakasa, Konstantinos Kaltsoukalasa, Dimitris Kontrovrakisa, George Chryssolourisa
a
University of Patras, Department of Mechanical Engineering and Aeronautics, Laboratory for Manufacturing Systems and Automation, 26500, Patras,
Greece

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +30-2610-997-264; fax: +30-2610-997-744. E-mail address: xrisol@lms.mech.upatras.gr

Abstract

This paper investigates into the use of a dual arm robot system for performing manual assembly operations. The investigation is
based on a case study, originating from the final assembly area of an automotive assembly plant. The motivation as well as the
benefits derived from the employment of a dual arm robot are discussed. The station layout, tooling design and robot
programming are elaborated. The use of a dual arm robot enables the performance of operations that are carried out by humans,
while the comparison of using single arm robots offers a number of advantages, which are discussed in the paper. The assembly
of a vehicle dashboard is used as the use case coming from the automotive industry.
© 2014
2014 The Authors.
Published by Published by Elsevier
Elsevier B.V. B.V.
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the International Scientific Committee of 5th CATS 2014 in the person of the Conference
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/).
Chair Prof.and
Selection Dr.peer-review
Matthias Putz matthias.putz@iwu.fraunhofer.de.
under responsibility of the International Scientific Committee of 5th CATS 2014 in the person of the Conference
Chair Prof. Dr. Matthias Putz matthias.putz@iwu.fraunhofer.de
Keywords:Assembly process, design, dual arm robot, automotive industry

Especially the human based assembly lines include operations

1. Introduction
that require dexterity that can only be achieved two-handedly.
These operations are also known as bi-manual [9].
Today’s market evolution and continuous competition rise
increase the pressure on industry for acquiring a larger market
share [1]. The automotive industry cannot be excluded from
this competition. Especially, since product variety is
increasing, the mass customization paradigm [2][3] dictates
the necessity for manufacturing systems to be designed in
such a way so as to be responsive to the needs of individuals
[4] . The automotive final assembly operations require more
flexibility and robustness [5]. For higher automation levels Fig. 1 (a) Automated assembly line; (b) Human based assembly line.
[6] multiple performance aspects have to be investigated into
and optimized with respect to metrics such as cost, The aim of this paper is to examine the increase of
productivity, quality and flexibility [7]. automation levels in human based assembly lines, with the
The automotive assembly lines are divided into automated, introduction of robots that can offer precision, repeatability
such as stamping body shop, paint shop and the human based and increased production rates as well as dexterity being
assembly lines, such as final assembly stations, powertrain closer to human-like performance [10][11][12][13]. Inspired
etc., as illustrated in Fig. 1. Michalos et al. [8] describe three by human task execution, the introduction of dual arm robots
categories of automotive assembly operations: the manual, in assembly lines, presents a double novelty [14]. On the one
flexible, semi-automated and fixed assembly operations. hand, the attempted automation of a traditional manual

2212-8271 © 2014 Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/).
Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the International Scientific Committee of 5th CATS 2014 in the person of the Conference
Chair Prof. Dr. Matthias Putz matthias.putz@iwu.fraunhofer.de
doi:10.1016/j.procir.2014.10.078
48 Panagiota Tsarouchi et al. / Procedia CIRP 23 (2014) 47 – 52

assembly cell is a challenge by itself. On the other hand, the x R1: Improvement in the final product quality. The
choice of a human like robot is essential for addressing tasks product quality is important as it is directly associated
that require restricted space and both arms acting in with customer satisfaction. Issues that can affect the
cooperation. The concept of using multiple cooperating robots quality are related to assembly errors that in manual
for assembly operations has been already discussed in assembly lines are common due to human factor.
numerous research works such as in [15]. The adoption of x R2: Minimum modifications in the current production
such robots, in the assembly line, seems promising as it line. Any attempt towards higher automation should aim
enables multi-tasking, as well as space and cost efficiency by at minimal modifications, resulting in cost and changes
eliminating the fixtures and clamping devices [16]. Last but reduction in the adjacent assembly stations.
not least, the fact that dual arm robots resemble the human x R3: Reduction in the cycle time towards achieving higher
body structure, [17], made the design and programming of production rates. The reduction is desired, but at least, the
assembly operations easier and more intuitive. intention is that the current cycle time be respected.
This study primarily investigates the mechanical and x R4: Improvement on working conditions and more
programming aspects of using a dual arm robot in operations specifically, on aspects of ergonomics. Lifting heavy
that are typically performed by humans. The selected case parts and repeating monotonous movements by operators
includes the design and programming of a dual arm robot to are some aspects to be improved in the designed
execute the pre-assembly of a vehicle dashboard traverse, as robotized line.
illustrated in Fig. 2. The first step includes the lifting of the x R5: Overall production cost reduction. This reduction is
traverse from the loading area and its placement on the mainly related to the reduction of reworking hours due to
assembly bank. Following, the car’s body computer is low quality products.
grasped, positioned and fixed on the traverse. Nearby this x R6: Safety. The safety issues are complementary to the
station, the installation of cables, air-condition unit etc. takes ergonomic aspects and are mostly related to the
place. avoidance of injuries or work related accidents.
x R7: Ease of use and maintainability. It is important to
enable easy ways of training an operator on how to use a
system, as well as to his easily maintaining the
equipment.
x R8: Improvement on production performance. For the
automotive industry, some important examples are
technical efficiency, annual production, number of
required shifts, number of human operators required etc.
Such aspects are aspired to be improved by increasing the
automation level. The technical efficiency (T.E.) is
calculated as the actual production throughput divided by
the planned production throughout.
x R9: Space saving. This requirement is important for
saving space for other stations or adding an extension
module to the same station.
In Fig. 3, the discussed requirements have been fused into
an assembly cell design and also a hierarchical model has
been derived in order to accommodate the assembly activities.

Fig. 2 Dashboard assembly station

This paper is structured as follows. Section 2, describes the

extraction requirements from the assembly operations
analysis. In section 3, the dual arm involvement in robotized
assembly lines is discussed. The automotive case study is
described in section 4, while sections 5 and 6, present the
results, discussion and conclusions respectively.

2. Requirements and assembly operations analysis

Fig. 3 Requirements vs hierarchical operations model [14]
The analysis carried out on the existing human based
assembly process has resulted in a list of nine important
Based on these requirements, the next steps for designing
requirements for the designing of a robotized assembly. These
an automated assembly station can be carried out even further.
requirements involve:
The design of the physical cell layout [18], the robot
selection, the grippers design, the tools selection etc. are
 Panagiota Tsarouchi et al. / Procedia CIRP 23 (2014) 47 – 52 49

closely connected with the robotized assembly operations. For Table 1. Single and bi-manual operations of dashboard automotive use case.
this reason, the hierarchical approach that was described in Dual arm robot Number of Number of Number of
[14] has been adopted. The hierarchical model is the structure tasks SINGLE arm SYNC arm COOP arm
of the assembly operations in different steps and levels. This operations operations operations
structure helps the designer to identify the possibility of Lift traverse 0 4 1
automating all the steps, the problems that may arise, possible Place traverse 0 4 1
redesigns of the station etc. Lift body 0 3 2
In the dashboard assembly case a number of parts have to computer
be assembled step by step. The vehicle traverse is the first part Place body 1 2 2
as shown in Fig. 4. A Body computer is depicted in Fig. 5, computer
from two different viewpoints with the screws that are used in Lift screw 2 1 0
order to be fixed on the traverse. driver
Screwing 3 0 0
process
Place screw 2 1 0
driver

The analysis of tasks in SINGLE, SYNC and COOP

motions has an important role in the design and selection of
tools and grasping devices, as well as in the workstation
layout. A dual arm robot enables the exploitation of the
Fig. 4 Vehicle traverse. maximum workspace around it, opposed to other solutions
dealing with single arm robots. This is further analysed in the
comparison presented in section 5, including the comparison
of one or multiple single arms and a dual arm robot for the
specific case.

4. Automotive industry- A case study

4.1. Layout design & implementation

In the selected assembly scenario, the tasks are currently

performed by a human operator using his/her hands or tools
Fig. 5 (a) Body computer view 1; (b) Body computer with screws. such as screw drivers. This investigation presents the potential
of setting up a dual arm robot cell for the assembling of a
vehicle’s dashboard traverse. For this purpose, a COMAU
3. Dual arm robot use for robotized assembly operations Smart Dual arm robot has been selected as the robot platform.
The selection was based on the handling of heavy and
The analysis of human operations focuses on analyzing the complex geometry parts, as well as flexible parts from
lowest level arm motions. These motions can be divided into different materials such as metal and plastic.
single arm actions, as well as bi-manual actions, according to Loading and assembly areas are visualized in Fig. 6(b),
the classification described in [14]. The bi-manual operations while in Fig. 6(a) the overall designed cell is presented. On
can be considered both as the coordinated motion of the two the left side, the traverse is standing on the loading area. The
arms, referred to as “COOP” in this work, as well as basic concept is that, due to its greater accessibility, the
synchronized motion when both arms are moving loading area is ideal for the human operator to load a traverse.
independently and synchronized which are denoted as The robot can transfer the traverse to the assembly bank by
“SYNC” motions. using both arms in a cooperation mode. The base, where the
The dual arm robot motion capabilities can cover most of body computer is placed, can be found on the left side of the
the human motions, both single and bi-manual actions. In the cell. Both arms of the robot hold the body computer and place
automotive case study, examined in this paper, both types of it onto the left side of the traverse. The next step is to be fixed
motions have been encountered and are presented in [14]. in place using three screws. In order to guarantee that the
Between them, there are 22 bimanual operations, 16 of which body computer will be fixed correctly, one arm holds the body
are SYNC and 6 are COOP arm operations. On the other computer in place and the other picks up the screw driver
hand, there are only 8 single arm operations used. This is also from its base.
a reason for directing the robotizing of the dashboard
assembly cell towards using a dual arm robot.

Fig. 6 (a) Layout overview; (b) Traverse bases design.

50 Panagiota Tsarouchi et al. / Procedia CIRP 23 (2014) 47 – 52

The grippers used in these tasks are visualized in Fig. 7 and assembly bank and traverse loading area, there are two user
are designed in such a way, so as to allow the handling of frames, which are mainly used for inserting the grippers into
more than one objects. In Fig. 7 (a) for example, a specially the traverse holes, as well as for lifting, placing the traverse
designed adaptor on one side of the gripper is used for lifting and the body computer. The UF3 is used for lifting the body
the traverse by being inserted into one of its holes. On the computer from the loading area.
other side, there is a commercial gripper that is integrated into
the robot and can be used for picking up the body computer as
well as the screw driver. The same concept is also adopted by
the second gripper. One side is designed in order to be
inserted into the traverse and the other one has a commercial
gripper used for lifting the body computer.
With this concept, not only can heavy parts such as the
Fig. 9 (a) User frames 1 and 2; (b) User frame 3.
traverse with weight about 11kg be lifted, but also smaller
parts such as a body computer with a weight about 0.5kg.
The steps that are followed in this workstation are
Another option would be the use of two different grippers for
summarized as follows:
each arm to be fitted with an automatic tool changer (ATC)
Traverse placement:
system. The cost in this case would be much higher, and the
1. Picking up the traverse from the loading area, as shown
cycle time of the process would be increased due to the time
in Fig. 10 (a). The smart dual arm robot approaches the
required for the changing of grippers.
traverse in the loading area and both arms in the SYNC
mode, insert the grippers into the traverse. The lifting of
the traverse is carried out using the COOP mode of the
robot arms, and finally, the rotary axis which is ARM3 of
the robot, brings the traverse in front of the assembly
bank.
2. The placement of the traverse onto the assembly bank is
Fig. 7 (a) Gripper for arm1; (b) Gripper for arm2.
illustrated in Fig. 10(b). The placement is implemented in
the COOP mode and when it is finished, both grippers are
The design of the screwing process was based on the use of
extracted from the part in the SYNC mode.
a simple commercial screw driver (Fig. 8 (b)) that supported
the torque control and the construction of a simple adaptor
(Fig. 8 (a)). The idea is that the screw driver is placed in the
adaptor, which is then fixed on the assembly bank. The left
arm of the robot can lift the screw driver using the fingers,
which are attached to the commercial gripper. Once again, the
alternative option would be to use an ATC system that would
cost more and require extra time for changing tools.
Fig. 10 (a) Traverse pick up; (b) Traverse placement.

Body computer placement:

1. Picking up the body computer from the loading area, as
shown in Fig. 11(a).
The rotary axis approaches the base of the body computer,
while both arms in the SYNC mode approach in order to
Fig. 8 (a) Screw tool base; (b) Low cost screw driver.
grasp, with both electrical grippers, the body computer. In
COOP mode, the robot moves away from the base and
The designed layout is a promising concept for fully
approaches the assembly bank using the rotary axis.
automating the human based assembly station. The next
2. Placement of the body computer onto the traverse as
section introduces the robot programming approach in terms
shown in Fig. 11(b)
of using a single or a cooperation mode between the arms of
In COOP mode, the robot approaches the assembly bank
the dual arm robot.
and leaves the body computer. One robot arm is moving away
to grasp the screw driver.
4.2. Dashboard assembly steps

In order for the programming process to be simplified,

there is a need to plan and define the appropriate user frames
(UFRAME) in the working cell. A UFRAME is a
transformation used to describe the position of the workpiece
with respect to the world [18]. The selected frames that have
been used in this assembly station can be seen in Fig. 9. In the Fig. 11 (a) Pick up body computer; (b) Place body computer.
 Panagiota Tsarouchi et al. / Procedia CIRP 23 (2014) 47 – 52 51

3. Fixing of the body computer with the screw driver as

illustrated in Fig. 12
While the first arm is lifting the screw driver, the second
arm holds the body computer in order to complete the
screwing process. This is essential for two main reasons. At
first, the body computer is not well-fitted in the traverse slot
due to its high tolerances, so it has to be held in a specific
position. Secondly, there is a need to grip the body computer
so that it will stay put during the screwing process. The holes,
where the screws will be inserted, are approached by a 6.5Nm Fig. 13 (a) Dual arm robot; (b) Dual arm robot workspace.
torque to be applied to the screw. The final step includes the
placement of the screw driver to its initial position. An alternative approach to designing this cell, was the use
of two single arm robots, as illustrated in Fig. 14 (a). The area
where the two separate robots can work, in cooperation, is
visualized in the same figure. The cooperative working space
is the purple spherical shape and is evidently restricted in
comparison to the dual arm robot, as shown in Fig. 13 (b).
The limited reachability is visualized in Fig. 15, where the
two robots are trying to cooperate in the workspace for
placing the traverse. In the same figure, the workspace of
Fig. 12 (a) Pick up screw driver; (b) Body computer screwing. Robot 1 can be shown by a red dotted line as well as the non-
reachable areas in red color. The areas that have to be reached
5. Results & Discussion for the completion of the dashboard assembly scenario are
areas 1-3. Area 1, can be reached by both robots, while area 2,
The motivation of the proposed assembly cell design is that cannot be reached by robot 1. It is also evident that in this
the automation level be increased in traditionally manual case, the two robots collide when trying to transfer the
assembly workstations, such as in the automotive final traverse from area 1 to area 2. In area 3, both robots have
assembly. The first results of this study are promising for limited reachability, so there is no possibility to complete the
directing future research. At the beginning, a simple dashboard assembly tasks with this alternative solution.
workstation layout design was carried out. The use of a one single arm robot, with a product specific
On the basis of the classification between single and bi- gripper for lifting the traverse, was another possibility. In this
manual actions, the use of dual arm robots has been evaluated. approach, the gripper would be rather heavy and complex for
The results show that this kind of robot is suitable for these handling the traverse as shown in Fig. 14(b), and it may not
tasks, as it has control capabilities for the execution of both be used for grasping a different part. The cost would be
single and bi-manual tasks. The final product quality –in this considerably increased in this case and an ATC system would
case the car- improvement in comparison to the manual be required. Compared to this solution, the dual arm robot has
assembly line is also an important issue that can be achieved provided the prospect of rather complex parts being handled
through this workstation, as a human is more susceptible to in a dexterous way and with the use of lower complexity
making assembly errors. Additionally, the working conditions tooling.
and improvement in ergonomics can be achieved through the
proposed concept, since the weight of the traverse is rather
high for a human operator in the line.
In case that a dual arm robot is used, better exploitation of
the workspace, greater levels of robot reachability as well as
easier programming and coordination of arms are allowed.
This is compatible with the development of algorithms in the
robot’s control system, which can easily perform bi-manual
actions. Additionally, the robot workspace can be extended as
the robot is equipped with an external rotary axis that allows
Fig. 14 (a) Two arm robots cooperative workspace ; (b) Single arm robot
the robot to rotate 180o around its base, as shown in Fig. 13. with complex gripper
In this case, the workspace for cooperative, synchronized and
single arm motions is visualized in Fig. 13 (b), covering the Additionally, it is worth-mentioning that the design of
larger area of the robot cell. simple and cost effective grasping devices can enable the
handling of different parts such as the traverse or the body
computer. This can be accommodated with the limited robot
payload, namely 20kg, more easily and without using an ATC
system.
52 Panagiota Tsarouchi et al. / Procedia CIRP 23 (2014) 47 – 52

Acknowledgements

This study was partially supported by the project X-act/ FoF-

ICT-314355, funded by the European Commission in the 7 th
Framework Programme.

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