Abstract
A vision-based blank alignment unit for a press automation line is introduced in this paper. A press is a machine tool that changes the shape of a blank by applying pressure and is widely used in industries requiring mass production. In traditional press automation lines, a mechanical centering unit, which consists of guides and ball bearings, is employed to align a blank before a robot inserts it into the press. However it can only align limited sized and shaped of blanks. Moreover it cannot be applied to a process where more than two blanks are simultaneously inserted. To overcome these problems, we developed a press centering unit by means of vision sensors for press automation lines. The specification of the vision system is determined by considering information of the blank and the required accuracy. A vision application S/W with pattern recognition, camera calibration and monitoring functions is designed to successfully detect multiple blanks. Through real experiments with an industrial robot, we validated that the proposed system was able to align various sizes and shapes of blanks, and successfully detect more than two blanks which were simultaneously inserted.
