SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
Submitted via IRC for TheMightyBuzzard
Humans easily outperform machines when it comes to tightening and loosening screw fasteners. The future of manufacturing and recycling may depend on changing that.
In the pantheon of technologies that make our modern society possible, one of the most underappreciated and neglected is the threaded fastener, more commonly known as the screw. This technology emerged at the dawn of the industrial era, when it became possible to make metal gadgets like these on a large scale.
Today, these devices literally hold the world together. Our 21st-century lifestyles would not be possible without them, and they are likely to play an indispensable role for the foreseeable future.
Yet in a world where manufacturing techniques are increasingly automated, there is a problem. The process of screwing and unscrewing is still one in which humans outperform machines. Robotic devices have difficulty locating screws and their sockets and then manipulating screws and screwdrivers effectively.
[...] These researchers are part of a team building robots that can take apart electronic devices, like smartphones, for recycling. The project is called RecyBot, and its goal is to create a high-speed intelligent robotic system for dismantling electronics.
That's a considerable challenge, and one of the biggest headaches is unscrewing. So the team at least have this under their belt. But the same technology could be applied in a wide range of smart factories that have to assemble and disassemble components.
Source: https://www.hardocp.com/news/2018/02/13/humans_screw_much_better_than_killer_robots/
Source: Haptics of Screwing and Unscrewing for its Application in Smart Factories for Disassembly
(Score: 4, Interesting) by LoRdTAW on Friday February 16 2018, @03:47AM (1 child)
Then you have an incredibly bad engineering team. Any good engineer will spec the proper bolt size and grade for the job and use the SAE chart. Granted, I will agree with you about the various conflicting chart's scattered about the web. But, if I were working for a company that had to comply with standards and cover liabilities then I would purchase copies of those standards directly from SAE or whatever governing body applies to your industry. Imagine if something went wrong and the poor schmuck of an engineer has to tell management that he found the specs on a random website after a quick google search. I'd imagine you'd be fired on the spot.
And as for the robots breaking screws, again follow the spec and design everything properly and you won't have those kinds of problems. Plus, management would ensure there is some sort of automated inspection system on the assembly line that would detect and halt the machinery.
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Friday February 16 2018, @07:36PM
You forgot the critical and mandatory phase of setting up any automated process: Build one. Stop. Inspect result. Adjust as needed.
The idea that someone would operate using a value that breaks thousands of screws would be laughable, if I didn't believe in the fundamental incompetence of some.
In my book, it's a "get fired" offense.