Manufacturing
Manufacturing of robotics
Funded by the Advanced Machinery and Productivity Institute, our research focuses on the autonomous manufacture of robotics. By combining advanced hardware tooling design, novel software control, and AI-driven closed-loop assembly processes, we have the capability to manufacture integrated electromechanical devices via a factory-in-a-box approach. Potential applications include the rapid prototyping and manufacture of bespoke pipe inspection robots, drones, and prosthetics.
Hybrid additive manufacturing
Developed in-house, our autonomous manufacturing platform utilises a tool-changing mechanism to enable the use of multifarious construction and assembly techniques. These include FDM printing, pick-and-place operations, and screw driving. The system also features an automated deployment mechanism.
Automatic assembly sequence
To enable a high level of autonomy, our research investigates the development of design-to-product assembly pipelines. This includes analysing the input CAD file, generating an assembly sequence, and calculating toolpaths.
AI-driven assembly processes
We are investigating the use of computer vision to provide feedback during the assembly process. Our AI system uses a novel approach to train for the recognition of parts and their orientations by training on digital datasets generated directly from the CAD files for the parts that must be identified, avoiding the need for costly dataset labelling.