Grant: Research Tools and Instruments - Category 1 (<$150,000)

The requested equipment consists of a 4-DOF modular manipulator and a gripper. This manipulator is made of modules and each module consists of a connector and a link. The connector contains an embedded controller and it is used for mechanical/power/control signal connections. Thus, the manipulator can be disassembled and assembled in up to eight different configurations.     The research activities to be conducted with the proposed infrastructure focus on, but are not limited to, the development, evaluation, validation and application of new technologies for design, simulation and control of flexible manufacturing systems, particularly for automotive applications, and find a way to improve dynamic performance of parallel mechanisms. The goal of this research is to develop reconfigurable manufacturing technologies that can quickly change a manufacturing system from one configuration for production of a product to another configuration for a different product. Such a system technology is very promising, especially for a mass customization manufacturing paradigm. However, this technology is still premature, both in the reliability and/or robustness of the modules, as well as the cost of deploying such systems in real-life situations. This implies a need for more research.     The long-term objectives of this research program, which are related to this infrastructure are (i) to develop and design simulation and control methods for reconfigurable systems; (ii) to develop enabling technologies to apply reconfigurable systems to reconfigurable manufacturing and (iii) to investigate a method to improve the dynamic performance of parallel mechanisms effectively.     The proposed equipment will be used in a short-term to support and greatly strengthen my NSERC DG program and some others.