In order to deal with labour shortages due to the predicted low birth rate in the 21st century, and create a more friendly production system, we propose a robotic system which assists production in flexible manufacturing environments. In this robotic system off-line robots are proposed to replace or reduce the need for human workers at the shop-floor. The off-line robots carry out assisting or service tasks for the on-line robots which perform manufacturing tasks at the production line or site. In this paper, first, an analysis of a conventional automatic production system using robots is described. Secondly, the concept of a robotic production system using two types of robots is proposed. Thirdly, a methodology for the realisation of the proposed concept and some technical results are presented. Finally, fault recovery using off-line robots and peripheral technology are discussed.
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Yang, HZ., Yamafuji, K., Arita, K. et al. Development of a Robotic System which Assists Unmanned Production Based on Cooperation between Off-Line Robots and On-Line Robots: Concept, Analysis and Related Technology. Int J Adv Manuf Technol 15, 432–437 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1007/s001700050087
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s001700050087