ロボットによる磨き作業の自動化 : 第4報,面粗さの測定とそれに基づく磨き  [in Japanese] Automation of Polishing Work by an Industrial Robot : 4th Report, Polishing with Reference to Surface Roughness  [in Japanese]

Polishing work is still lagging in automation since it requires skilled and experienced workers. The requirement of streamlining polishing work has increased greatly according to the current trend of the rapid change of products. However, full automation of polishing work has not been achieved. The reason why automation of polishing work is difficult lies in the following aspects : the complexity of workpiece shape, the difficulty of surface roughness evaluation, and the lack of expertise in polishing work. The study deals with the automation of polishing work using an industrial robot, on the basis of a CAD/CAM system, and in perticular, the automatic evaluation of surface roughness which is of great importance for realizing automatic exchange of polishing tools according to the surface roughness. In the study, a noncontacting sensor, mounted at the top of the arm of a 6-axis control robot, measures the surface roughness of a workpiece based on CAD/CAM data. The system allows adequate exchange of polishing tools, which results in the reduction of polishing time.