The 'APA' app from Fraunhofer IPA evaluates information on the aspects of 'separating', 'handling', 'positioning' and 'joining' and thus helps companies to determine the potential for automating a process.

© Fraunhofer IPA, Alexander Neb

The app guides the user to analyze their own assembly processes in detail, evaluates the answers and provides information about the automation potential. The experts at the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation (IPA ) have digitally processed their knowledge, which they previously provided in a personally conducted automation potential analysis ('APA'), in the app. At the Motek 2019 trade fair (October 7-10), they will be presenting the new version 2.0 of the APA app in hall 7 (stand 7128) and are looking for the first users and testers. They will be able to try out the app with a simple license agreement.

"With our 'APA' app, anyone can become an expert in the evaluation of assembly processes," explains Alexander Neb, who works as a research associate at Fraunhofer IPA and helped develop the app. The app is not intended to be limited to assembly. An application with human-robot cooperation (HRC) can often be useful instead of full automation. The researchers therefore want to integrate this topic into the app. It could also support inspection and maintenance in the future. The researchers welcome inquiries from interested companies for these further developments.

Hardware and software modules for assembly

The 'pitasc' software, which can also be seen at Motek 2019, allows programmed assembly applications to be reused and used with other robots, for example.

© Fraunhofer IPA, Rainer Bez

Another IPA exhibit at Motek is the 'pitasc' software solution for programming force-controlled assembly processes. It makes it possible to automate processes that were previously carried out manually in an economically viable way. "Previously, it was necessary to program a robot system from scratch for each application. With our software, once tasks have been modeled, they can be quickly transferred to new product variants, products and even robots from other manufacturers," says Frank Nägele, group manager at Fraunhofer IPA. The software is structured like a modular system: it contains many ready-to-use and reusable program modules that can be put together individually and used directly when setting up a robot system. 'pitasc' is ready for use in pilot applications, which the IPA researchers would like to implement together with companies.

At Motek, the software will also be integrated into a robot system that can be quickly assembled from hardware modules. The modules - such as a robot arm, tools or devices - are simply and precisely placed on perforated grid tables. The modules also include the program components required to carry out an assembly task and the necessary information such as tool positions and geometries. This allows the user to set up or convert a robot cell with little programming effort. This demonstrator is a result of the EU project 'RAMPup'. The aim of the project was to integrate hardware and software into automation modules that allow a robot cell to be set up and converted quickly for specific applications and variants.