Skapat av Högskolan i Skövde och på uppdrag av Elektroautomatik i Skövde har detta projekt genomförts för att identifiera möjliga människa-robot samarbeten i monteringsmiljö. Robotarna som funnits i åtanke för denna form av samarbete är kollaborativa robotar. I dagens industri existerar redan kollaborativa robotar men utför ofta uppgifter på en mer samexisterande nivå avskild från människan. Den form av människa-robot samarbete som undersökts i detta arbete är där båda parter assisterar varandra i en arbetsuppgift på gemensam yta. Detta koncept har blivit allt viktigare för dagens företag som efterfrågar ett mer flexibelt och anpassningsbart system i framtiden. Under projektet undersöktes även förbättringsförslag på nuvarande lösningar för kollaborativa robotar samt processen kring robotlösningen. Genom studerad litteratur utformades tre intervjuprotokoll avsedda för en intervjustudie med tre olika yrkesgrupper – montörer, produktionstekniker och ingenjörer. Intervjustudien utfördes i samarbete med företag i Skövde där kunskap extraherats från personer inom monteringsmiljö. Kärnfrågan i samtliga intervjuprotokoll var i vilka uppgifter i monteringsmiljö som intervjupersonen såg möjlighet till ett människa-robot samarbete. Insamlad data har transkriberats, strukturerats och sorterats för att kunna sammanställa ett resultat. Förslag på möjliga arbetsmoment som framkom under intervjustudien delades in i sex kategorier: Svåråtkomligt, tidskrävande, ergonomisk avlastning, logistik, kvalitet och produktvariation. Ett resultat presenteras där samarbetsuppgifter mellan människa och robot sammanställts från intervjustudien. Dessa har sorterats efter de sex kategorierna inom möjliga arbetsmoment. Övergripande förslag angavs under intervjustudien på vilken typ av uppgifter och områden en kollaborativ robot hade kunnat samarbeta med en människa. Dessa förslag föll under flera kategorier – exempelvis äntring av stort antal skruvar vilket kan kategoriseras enligt både ergonomisk avlastning och tidskrävande. Den kategori som genererat flest förslag är arbetsuppgifter där en kollaborativ robot kan erbjuda ergonomisk avlastning för människan. För att identifiera mer specifika arbetsuppgifter behöver ytterligare undersökning utföras baserat på de områden som identifierats i detta arbete. Den kollaborativa robotlösningen behöver kunna arbeta inom flera olika kategorier för att uppnå den framtida flexibla produktion som efterfrågas. / Created by the University of Skövde and assigned by Elektroautomatik in Skövde this project was executed to identify possible HRC tasks in the assembly industry. The robots that were reviewed for this type of collaboration tasks were collaborative robots. Collaborative robots already exists in today’s industry but are commonly working on a co-existing level separated from the human. The type of collaboration investigated during this project regards solving tasks where the human and robot assist each other on a common work surface. This concept has gained more importance for companies today because of the increasing demand of a more flexible and adaptable system for the future production. Improvement proposals has been generated during the project regarding the collaborative robot and its implementation process. Based on the researched literature three interview protocols was created for three different groups of professions – assemblers, production technicians and engineers. In collaboration with companies in Skövde the interviews were executed gathering knowledge from people working within the assembly environment. The main question in all interview protocols were in which type of assembly tasks the interviewed could see a possibility for HRC. Collected data has been transcribed, structured and sorted in order to reach a result. Proposals of possible HRC operations gathered from the interviews were divided into six categories – inaccessible, time demanding, ergonomic relief, logistics, quality and product variety. A result has been presented where HRC tasks has been compiled from the interviews. These has been sorted into the six categories generated from possible HRC operations. General ideas were proposed during the interviews regarding what possible type of tasks and areas a collaborative robot could work together with a human. In many cases the proposals given could be sorted into more than one category – for example assemble of a large amount of screws that could be categorized as both ergonomic relief and time demanding. The category that generated the largest amount of proposals of HRC were tasks intended to offer ergonomic relief for the human. To identify more specific HRC tasks further research need to be performed based on the categories of areas that has been identified in this project. The future collaborative robot solution has to be able to combine more than one category to reach the flexible and adaptable system that is demanded.

Autotube är ett företag baserat i Varberg som utvecklar och producerar luft- och vätskelösningar främst inom bilindustrin. På senare tid har biltillverkarna skiftat till högre bränsletryck i bensindrivna förbränningsmotorer vilket har lett till att företagets produktutvecklingsavdelning saknar testutrustning för att utveckla nya produkter vilket i sin tur har lett till att företaget köpt tjänsten från extern leverantör. Kostnaderna och den bristande insynen i trycktester hos extern leverantör har lett Autotube att investera i ny utrustning och bedriva framtida tester i företagets lokaler. Ambitionen är att testanläggningen ska kunna genomföra tryckpulser och sprängprover både för produktutveckling och stickprov. Det övergripande syftet med examensarbetet är att programmera PLC logiken, designa HMI-panelen och skapa en elektriskt överförbar rapport efter genomfört testutförande. Under projektets progression visade studier och företagets empiriska kunskaper att resultatet från testanläggningen karakteriseras av tre nyckelparametrar; funktionsduglighet, realtidsövervakning och datahantering. Varje kategori har givetvis flera underkategorier som adderar värde till nyckelparametrarna. För funktionsduglighet krävs pålitlig hårdvara som klarar av att vara driftsatt under lång tid utan avbrott. Dock om ett avbrott från yttre faktorer skulle inträffa behöver testanläggningen programmeras för att spara data och undvika att testresultaten raderas. För att undvika irritation och handhavandefel bör användargränssnittet vara utformad efter målgruppens behov och mängden information bör begränsas. God realtidsövervakning ställer krav på lättåtkomlig information både vid testanläggningen och på distans vilket ökar möjligheten att läsa av testutförandes värden oberoende av vart användaren befinner sig. För att minska användarens arbetsbelastning bör varningssignaler som indikerar när testanläggningen inte utför önskvärt arbete användas. Datahantering bör ske automatiserat för att tillse att rätt data lagras och att den mänskliga faktorn kringgås. Flertalet rapporter under testutförandets förlopp är fördelaktigt för jämförelse av testutförandets olika skeden vilket ökar insikten om vad som skett när och möjliggör en djupare analys av testutförandet. Det genomförda arbetet har analyserat olika alternativ och använt litteratur relevant till nyckelparametrarna tillsammans med kontinuerlig återkoppling från företagets tekniker för att skapa mjukvaran till testanläggningen. Resultatet är en pålitlig anläggning med skräddarsydd realtidsövervakning och automatisk datahantering. / Autotube is a company based in Varberg that develops and produces air- and fluid solutions primarily to the automotive industry. Recently the automotive manufacturers have increased the fuel injection pressure in petrol engines which has led to the absence of proper test equipment which limits the company’s product development department as pressure test has to be bought by a third-party company. The costs and lack of insight in the pressure tests that is associated with purchasing the service from a third part company has led Autotube to invest in new equipment that will allow the company to do future tests in-house. The ambition is to perform pressure pulsation tests and burst tests for both product development and production samples. The general purpose of the thesis is to program the PLC logic, design the HMI-panel and to create and electrically transferrable report after test completion. During the progression of the project studies and the company’s empirical knowledge showed that the result from a test facility is characterized primarily by three key parameters; functionality, real time monitoring and data management. Each category includes several subcategories that adds value to each key parameter. Functionality requires reliable hardware that can stay commissioned for extended periods of times without Interruption. However, if interruptions do occur it is important that the data from the ongoing test is saved so that data is not lost. To avoid irritation and mishandling it’s important to design the user interface according to the needs of the users and to avoid excessive information that is not vital for the result. A proper real time monitoring solution requires that information is easily available both at the location of the test facility and at distance in order to enable to user to act no matter where the user is located. Warning signals that indicate when the test facility does not perform as expected should be used in order to reduce the workload. Data management should be automatic in order to store the correct data and prevent errors caused by the human factor. Several reports should be used during the test as it allows the user to compare the data in the different test stages which improves the insight and analysis capability of the performed test. The performed work has analysed different alternatives and used literature relevant to the key parameters combined with continuous feedback from the company’s technicians in order to create the software for the test facility. The result is a reliable facility with tailored real time monitoring and automatic data management.

Optimised allocation of system architectures is a well researched area as it can greatly reduce the developmental cost of systems and increase performance and reliability in their respective applications.In conjunction with the recent shift from federated to integrated architectures in automotive, and the increasing complexity of computer systems, both in terms of software and hardware, the applications of design space exploration and optimised allocation of system architectures are of great interest.This thesis proposes a method to derive architectures and their allocations for systems with real-time constraints.The method implements integer linear programming to solve for an optimised allocation of system architectures according to a set of linear constraints while taking resource requirements, communication dependencies, and manual design choices into account.Additionally, this thesis describes and evaluates an industrial use case using the method wherein the timing characteristics of a system were evaluated, and, the method applied to simultaneously derive a system architecture, and, an optimised allocation of the system architecture.This thesis presents evidence and validations that suggest the viability of the method and its use case in an industrial setting.The work in this thesis sets precedence for future research and development, as well as future applications of the method in both industry and academia.

This report shows a robust and efficient implementation of a speed-optimized algorithm for object recognition, 3D real world location and tracking in real time. It details a design that was focused on detecting and following objects in flight as applied to a football in motion. An overall goal of the design was to develop a system capable of recognizing an object and its present and near future location while also actuating a robotic arm in response to the motion of the ball in flight. The implementation made use of image processing functions in C++, NVIDIA Jetson TX1, Sterolabs’ ZED stereoscopic camera setup in connection to an embedded system controller for the robot arm. The image processing was done with a textured background and the 3D location coordinates were applied to the correction of a Kalman filter model that was used for estimating and predicting the ball location. A capture and processing speed of 59.4 frames per second was obtained with good accuracy in depth detection while the ball was well tracked in the tests carried out.

In December 2015 the Paris Agreement was signed in order to create a better global climate. According to the agreement, all countries 'emissions shall be reported to the UN. To be able to do this current emission levels must be known, which means measurement and calculation of emissions are necessary.   The state-owned mining company Luossavaara Kiirunavaara AB (LKAB) operates iron ore mines in Northen Sweden. The iron ore products produced at the KK4 coal mill in Kiruna, consists of some additives that form carbon dioxide when burned. The amount of additives burned is measured using two flowmeters. To ensure that these meters have approved accuracy, annual calibrations are performed where measured volume is compared to a reference volume. In order to ensure that LKAB's calibration method works, another type of calibration was performed by an external company. The results between the two calibration methods differ significantly, which led to this report.   The purpose of this work is to develop improvement proposals for LKAB's calibration method and to present suggestions on how LKAB can create better conditions for the other so called transit time calibration method. By analyzing each method and performing measurements, tests and calculations, weaknesses are noted. Tests show that a weakness of LKAB's calibration is that the level measurement method used is person-dependent. Level measurement with laser range gauge is tested with good results, why this type of measurement is recommended in the future. The main weakness with transit time method is primarily that it is sensitive to variation of the inner diameter of the pipe. In order for this method to provide reliable results, rebuilding of pipes and carefully measured internal diameter are required. Accurate flow measurement means that current carbon dioxide emissions can be calculated, which enables continued work towards set environmental goals. Flowmeters also have a significant role in product quality in KK4, which means that this report can contribute to higher quality and economic profitability. / I december 2015 undertecknades Parisavtalet i syfte att skapa ett bättre globalt klimat. Enligt avtalet ska alla länders utsläpp redovisas till FN. En förutsättning för att Sverige ska kunna redovisa utsläppen är att nuvarande utsläppsnivåer är kända, varför mätning och beräkning av utsläpp är nödvändig.   Det statligt ägda gruvbolaget Luossavaara Kiirunavaara AB (LKAB) driver järnmalmsgruvor i Malmfälten. Den järnmalmspellets som tillverkas vid kulsinterverket KK4 i Kiruna består till viss del av tillsatsmedel, som vid förbränning bildar koldioxid. Hur mycket tillsatsmedel som förbränns mäts med hjälp av två flödesmätare. För att säkerställa att dessa mätare har godkänd noggrannhet utförs årliga kalibreringar där uppmätt volym jämförs med en referensvolym. I syfte att säkerställa att LKAB:s kalibreringsmetod fungerar har ett externt företag utfört kalibrering med en annan metod där mätsensorer placeras på tillsatsmedelledningen. Resultaten mellan de två kalibreringsmetoderna skiljer sig avsevärt, vilket föranlett denna rapport.   Syftet med arbetet är att ta fram förbättringsåtgärder för LKAB:s kalibreringsmetod samt presentera förslag på hur LKAB kan skapa bättre förutsättningar för den andra så kallade pulshastighetsmetoden. Genom att analysera respektive kalibreringsmetod och utföra mätningar, tester och beräkningar tas svagheter fram. Tester visar att en svaghet med LKAB:s kalibrering är att den nivåmätningsmetod som används är personberoende. Nivåmätning med laseravståndsmätare testas med gott resultat varför denna typ av mätning rekommenderas framöver.   En svaghet med pulshastigheten är att den är känslig för variation av rörens innerdiameter. För att denna metod ska ge tillförlitliga resultat krävs ombyggnation av ledningar samt noga uppmätt innerdiameter.   Noggrann flödesmätning leder till att nuvarande koldioxidutsläpp kan beräknas vilket skapar förutsättningar för fortsatt arbete mot uppställda miljömål. Flödesmätarna har även en betydande roll för produktkvaliteten i KK4 vilket innebär att denna rapport kan bidra till högre kvalitet och ekonomisk lönsamhet.

Rapporten beskriver arbetet med att modernisera en testutrustning för ett robotsystem. Den nya testutrustningen skulle moderniseras till att använda USB-gränssnitt istället för RS232-gränssnitt för kommunikation mellan dator och den övriga hårdvaran. Arbetet börjar med kravspecifikation och slutar med en fungerande produkt. I det innefattas en kortare förklaring av USB-gränssnittet och dess skillnader från RS232-gränssnittet, en utredning för att finna den bästa lösningen för att förverkliga USB-kommunikationen med utrustningen och konstruktion av elektronik för att styra signaler och spänningsmatningar till robotsystemet. / This report describes the work to modernize a test equipmentt for a missile system. The new test equipment would be upgraded to use a USB interfaces instead of RS232 interface for communication between the computer and the rest of the hardware. The work begins with the specification and ends with a working product. In that included a brief explanation of the USB interface and its differences from the RS232 interface, an investigation to find the best solution for implementing USB communication with the equipment and construction of electronics to control signals and power supplies to the missile system.

More complex and intricate Computer Vision algorithms combined with higher resolution image streams put bigger and bigger demands on processing power. CPU clock frequencies are now pushing the limits of possible speeds, and have instead started growing in number of cores. Most Computer Vision algorithms' performance respond well to parallel solutions. Dividing the algorithm over 4-8 CPU cores can give a good speed-up, but using chips with Programmable Logic (PL) such as FPGA's can give even more. An interesting recent addition to the FPGA family is a System on Chip (SoC) that combines a CPU and an FPGA in one chip, such as the Zynq-7000 series from Xilinx. This tight integration between the Programmable Logic and Processing System (PS) opens up for designs where C programs can use the programmable logic to accelerate selected parts of the algorithm, while still behaving like a C program. On that subject, Xilinx has introduced a new High-Level Synthesis Tool (HLST) called Vivado HLS, which has the power to accelerate C code by synthesizing it to Hardware Description Language (HDL) code. This potentially bridges two otherwise very separate worlds; the ever popular OpenCV library and FPGAs. This thesis will focus on evaluating Vivado HLS from Xilinx primarily with image processing in mind for potential use on GIMME-2; a system with a Zynq-7020 SoC and two high resolution image sensors, tailored for stereo vision.

För att upptäcka defekta luftmunstycken har Ecco Finishing AB i Skara tagit fram en ny provutrustning som ska ersätta en otillförlitlig och osäker befintlig provmaskin. Ecco Fi-nishing AB vill hitta en tillförlitlig och säker mätmetod som ska mäta mängd vatten i 50 provrör. Examensarbetets övergripande mål är att hitta en noggrann och repeterbar mätmetod för nivåmätning av vätska i provrören. Två mätmetoder utvärderades som är mest lämpliga för nivåmätningen, visionsystem och mätning genom vägning. Anledningen till att valet ham-nade på dessa två mätmetoder är provutrustningens provrör, dels att det är många mätpunkter och för att det är små provrör. Det gjordes tjugo experiment för visionsystem och tjugo ex-periment för vägningsmetod för att utvärdera och beskriva för - och nackdelar. Experimenten av visionsystem och vägning gjordes först i laborationsfas för att sedan testas på företagets befintliga provutrustning. Resultaten av mätningar sparades i ett Excel-ark som användes för att utvärdera insamlade data. Utvärderingarna jämfördes mot uppsatta mål, tillförlitlighet, noggrannhet, repeterbarhet, automatisk rapportering av resultat och tid för mätningen. Vis-ionsystem rekommenderas för fortsatt arbete och implementation på den befintliga provut-rustningen. / To detect defective air nozzles, Ecco Finishing AB in Skara has developed a new test equip-ment to replace an unreliable and uncertain existing test machine. Ecco Finishing AB wants to find a reliable and safe measurement method that will measure the amount of water in 50 test tubes. The overall goal of the thesis is to find a precise and repeatable measurement method for level measurement of fluid in the test tubes. Two measurement methods were evaluated that are most suitable for level measurement, vision systems and measurement by weighing. The reason for the choice of these two measurement methods is the test tubes of the test equipment, and that there are many measuring points and because of the small test tubes. Twenty experiments for vision systems and twenty experiments for weighing method were made to evaluate and describe pros and cons. The experiments of vision systems and weighing were first made in the laboratory phase and then tested on the company's existing test equipment. The results of measurements were saved in an Excel sheet used to evaluate collected data. The evaluations were compared to set goals, reliability, accuracy, repeatabil-ity, automatic reporting of results and time of measurement. Vision systems are recom-mended for continued work and implementation on the existing test equipment.

The interest in breaking the historical dependence on fossil energy and begin moving towards more renewable energy sources is rising worldwide. This is largely due to uncertainties in the future supply of fossil fuels and the rising concerns about humanity’s role in the currently ongoing climate changes. One renewable energy source is ocean waves and Uppsala University has since the early 2000s been performing active research in this area. The Uppsala wave energy concept is centered on developing linear generators coupled to point absorbing buoys, with the generator situated on the seabed and connected to the buoy on the sea surface via a steel wire. The motion of the buoy then transfers energy to the generator, where it is converted into electricity and sent to shore for delivery into the electrical grid. This thesis will mainly focus on the development and evaluation of technologies used to automate the manufacturing of the translator, a central part of the linear generator, using industrial robotics. The translator is a 3 m high and 0.8 m wide three sided structure with an aluminum pipe at its center. The structure consists of alternating layers of steel plates (pole-shoes) and ferrite magnets, with a total of 72 layers per side. To perform experiments on translator assembly and production, a robot cell (centered on an IRB6650S industrial robot) complimented with relevant tools, equipment and security measures, has been designed and constructed. The mounting of the pole-shoes on the central pipe, using the industrial robot, proved to be the most challenging task to solve. However, by implementing a precise work-piece orientation calibration system, combined with selective compliance robot tools, the task could be performed with mounting speeds of up to 50 mm/s. Although progress has been made, much work still remains before fully automated translator assembly is a reality. A secondary topic of this thesis is the development of stand-alone measurement systems to be used in the linear generator, once it has been deployed on the seabed. The main requirements of such a measurement system is robustness, resistance to electrical noise, and power efficiency. If possible the system should also be portable and easy to use. This was solved by developing a custom measurement circuit, based on industry standard 4–20 mA current signals, combined with a portable submersible logging unit. The latest iteration of the system is small enough to be deployed and retrieved by one person, and can collect data for 10 weeks before running out of batteries. Future work in this area should focus on increasing the usability of the system. The third and final topic of this thesis is a short discussion of an engineering approach to kinetic energy storage, in the form of high-speed composite flywheels, and the design of two different prototypes of such flywheels. Both designs gave important insights to the research group, but a few crucial design faults unfortunately made it impossible to evaluate the full potential of the two designs.

Forests represent one of the biggest terrestrial ecosystems of Earth, that can produce important raw renewable materials such as wood with the help of sun, air and water. To efficiently extract these raw materials, the tree harvesting process is highly mechanized in developed countries, meaning that advanced forestry machines are continuously used to fell, to process and to transport the logs and biomass obtained from the forests. However, working with these machines is demanding both mentally and physically, which are known factors to negatively affect operator productivity. Mental fatigue is mostly due to the manual operation of the on-board knuckleboom crane, which requires advanced cognitive work with two joystick levers, while the most serious physical strains arise from cabin vibrations. These vibrations are generated from knuckleboom crane vibrations as a result of aggressive manual operation. To enhance operator workload, well-being, and to increase productivity of the logging process, semi-automation functions are suggested, which are supervised automatic executions of specific work elements. Some of the related issues are addressed in the current thesis. Therefore, the content is divided into: (1) the design and development of a semi-automation function focused only on the base joint actuator (slewing actuator) of a knuckleboom crane, and (2) active vibration damping solutions to treat crane structure vibrations induced by the main lift cylinder (inner boom actuator). The considered reference machine is a downsized knuckleboom crane of a forwarder machine, which is used to pick up log assortments from a harvesting site. The proposed semi-automation function presented in the first part could be beneficial for operators to use during log loading/unloading scenarios. It consists from a closed-loop position control architecture, to which smooth reference slewing trajectories are provided by a trajectory planner that is automated via operator commands. The used trajectory generation algorithms are taken from conventional robotics and adapted to semi-automation context with proposed modifications that can be customizable by operators. Further, the proposed active vibration damping solutions are aimed to reduce vibrations of the knuckleboom crane excited by the inner boom actuator due to aggressive manual commands. First, a popular input shaping control technique combined with a practical switching logic was investigated to deal with the excited payload oscillations. This technique proved to be useful with a fixed crane pose, however it did not provide much robustness in terms of different link configurations. To tackle this problem an H2-optimal controller is developed, which is active in the pressure feedback-loop and its solely purpose is to damp the same payload oscillations. During the design process, operator commands are treated and explained from input disturbance viewpoint. All of the hypothesis throughout this thesis were verified with extensive experimental studies using the reference machine.