J. Norberto Pires, A. Loureiro, T. Godinho, P. Ferreira, B. Fernando and J. Morgado
Associating robot manipulators with industrial welding operations is common and maybe one of the most successful applications of industrial robots. Nevertheless, it is far from…
Abstract
Associating robot manipulators with industrial welding operations is common and maybe one of the most successful applications of industrial robots. Nevertheless, it is far from being a solved technological process, mainly because the welding process is not fully understood but also because robots are still at an early satge of development, being difficult to use and program by regular operators. This is also true for Human Machine Interfaces (HMI), which are not intuitive to use and are therefore unsatisfactory. In this paper we discuss these problems and present a system designed with the double objective of serving our R&D efforts on welding applications, but also our need to assist industrial partners working with welding setups. Frequently industrial partners are not happy with available commercial systems, requiring tailored solutions that could be adapted to several robots and robot controllers. The developed system is explained in some detail, and demonstrated using two test cases which reproduce two situations very common in industry: multi‐layer butt welding (used on big structures requiring very strong welds) and multi‐point fillet welding (used for example on structural pieces for the construction industry).
J.N. Pires, T. Godinho and R. Araújo
Interaction with robot systems for the specification of manufacturing tasks needs to be simple since the paper targets the widespread use of robots in small and medium enterprises…
Abstract
Purpose
Interaction with robot systems for the specification of manufacturing tasks needs to be simple since the paper targets the widespread use of robots in small and medium enterprises (SMEs). In the best case, existing practices from manual work could be used, to ensure current employees a smooth introduction to robot technology as a natural part of their work. The aim of the paper is to simplify the robot‐programming task by allowing the user to simply make technical drawings on a sheet of paper. Craftsmen use paper and raw sketches for several situations: to share ideas, to get a better perspective of the problem, or to remember the customer situation. Currently these sketches have to be either interpreted by the worker when producing the final product by hand, or transferred into CAD files using an appropriate software tool. The former means that no automation is included, the latter means extra work and considerable experience in using the CAD tool.
Design/methodology/approach
The approach is to use a digital pen and paper, both based on the Anoto technology, as input devices for SME robotic tasks, thereby creating simpler and more user‐friendly alternatives for the programming, parameterization and commanding actions. To this end, the basic technology has been investigated and fully working prototypes have been developed to explore the possibilities in the context of typical SME applications. Based on the encouraging experimental results, it is believed that drawings on digital paper will, among other means of human‐robot interaction, play an important role in manufacturing SMEs in the future. Consequently, a fully working test‐case welding example is presented and explained, allowing a complete demonstration of all the developed features.
Findings
This paper explores the utilization of digital pens for the task of programming industrial robot manipulators, i.e. the possibility of obtaining robot programs from technical drawings on a sheet of paper. A practical implementation was presented to demonstrate how to use digital pens and CAD applications to program industrial robots. The results clearly show that the digital pen based on Anoto technology, integrated with CAD interfaces and code generation interfaces, is very useful and powerful for the planned task. The next steps will be to adopt a software infrastructure and develop the necessary services to allow system integrators to consider this type of device as an advanced user‐friendly robot‐programming method.
Originality/value
This is the first time that digital pens have been used to program robot manipulators.
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J. Norberto Pires, T. Godinho, P. Ferreira and A. Loureiro
In this paper a solution capable of extracting robot motion information from CAD data is briefly presented and explored.
Abstract
Purpose
In this paper a solution capable of extracting robot motion information from CAD data is briefly presented and explored.
Design/methodology/approach
The motion information is added by the user to the CAD file, defining in this way the approach, fly‐by and welding trajectories. So the user programs the robot. An application is then used to extract that information and constitute a pre‐program, which should be tuned with the real robot using a small set of rules. In this way, versatility of robotic cells is improved and its programming is simplified.
Findings
The developed CAD interface is tested using a robot welding experiment on a steel beam used for industrial buildings.
Originality/value
This paper builds on work previously described in “CAD interface for automatic robot welding programming” published in Industrial Robot, Vol. 31, No. 1.
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J. Norberto Pires, T. Godinho and P. Ferreira
Industrial robots play an important role in industry, due to their flexibility. Many applications (almost all that require human intervention) may be performed with advantages by…
Abstract
Industrial robots play an important role in industry, due to their flexibility. Many applications (almost all that require human intervention) may be performed with advantages by robots. Nevertheless, set‐up operations, necessary when changing production models, are still tricky and time‐consuming. It is common to have detailed data of working pieces in computer aided design (CAD) files, resulting from product design and project. This information is not used satisfactorily, or even not used at all, for robot programming. In this paper, we propose a solution capable of extracting robot motion information from the CAD data.
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The Central Asian republics are among the countries which currently experience the world’s fastest growing HIV/AIDS epidemic. At the same time, they are threatened by the…
Abstract
The Central Asian republics are among the countries which currently experience the world’s fastest growing HIV/AIDS epidemic. At the same time, they are threatened by the re‐emergence of tuberculosis (TB), with the highest rates of new TB cases among the Former Soviet Republics. One of the groups that is at highest risk from TB and HIV/AIDS and that is, at the same time, the major regional drivers of the epidemics is the prison population. Up to an estimated third of HIV/AIDS infected persons in Central Asia are within the penitentiary system. At the same time, prisons are known to be the ‘epidemiological pump’ for TB in the region, fuelled by overcrowding, poor ventilation and inadequate nutrition. Both AIDS and TB incidence and death rates among prisoners are much higher than in the civilian population, with an alarming rising trend. Prison health is a key issue of public interest, especially in the context of an epidemiological crisis as in Central Asia. This paper looks at the spread of HIV/AIDS and TB in the region and analyses the role prisons play as one of the main multipliers.
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Abstract
This chapter focuses on exploring challenges encountered by the neglected group of employees who live alone and do not have children, particularly in relation to work-life balance (WLB). We first question the conventional WLB discourse – predominately surrounded by addressing work-family conflicts. We next discuss how this formulates debates about the equality and fairness of HR policies affecting various groups of employees, with solo-living individuals being excluded. In addition to previously documented work-life issues, we articulate difficulties related to the pursuit of independence, freedom, balancing, and healthy work-life experiences for and specific to solo-living women academics. We conclude that our insights on “vulnerability” may lead to feminist approach being incorporated into work-life policy development in order to better engage underrepresented groups of employees, accommodate the needs of “others” and promote collective flourishing.
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The closure of schools and nurseries during the COVID-19 lockdowns triggered the re-insourcing of childcare to the home, sparking extensive public debate and academic research on…
Abstract
The closure of schools and nurseries during the COVID-19 lockdowns triggered the re-insourcing of childcare to the home, sparking extensive public debate and academic research on the pandemic's potential impact on gender equality (see, for example, Burgess and Goldman, 2021; Vandecasteele et al. 2022). My PhD research, which explores parents' decision-making influences when planning care during their child's first year in the UK context, coincided with COVID-19. The coinciding of my data collection with COVID-19 (seven online discussions with a total of 36 participants and 12 follow up interviews, 10 which include partners) created microcosms in which wider public debates were echoed. My research draws on the Capability Approach (CA) (Sen, 2009) to conceptualise parents' capabilities to share leave as they aspire to and employs dialogical narrative analysis (DNA) (Riessman, 2008) to explore how gendered parenting norms are constitutive of parents’ care capabilities. In this chapter, I draw on feminist ethics of care to explore the disruption of gendered parenting norms, in the COVID-19 context, within parents' decision-making and a possible ‘reimagining’ of the value attributed to care (Ozkazanc-Pan and Pullen, 2021; Tronto, 2017). My findings support anticipation of what the promise of greater flexibility could bring as a result of increased visibility of caregiving during COVID-19. However, I also find evidence which supports the caution previously recommended of the need to reflect on work cultures and the predominance of masculine ideal worker norms in the UK (Chung et al. 2021).
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Marjorie Gott and Hester Packham
Describes a study of three community nursing services provided by North Staffordshire Health Authority, which was carried out during the summer of 1991. Both the type and focus of…
Abstract
Describes a study of three community nursing services provided by North Staffordshire Health Authority, which was carried out during the summer of 1991. Both the type and focus of quality measurement reported here are fairly unique. While the development of quality measures is yet at an early stage, most measures to date are quantitative. These can inform about volume of use of a service, but not its quality. The measures designed for this study were qualitative. These, when combined with quantitative data (statistics, routinely collected), yield much richer and more complete information as a basis for decision making in service planning. Quality data on the use of community services are also under‐represented in the quality literature — most studies to date have used hospital patient services as their source for data collection. Goes some way towards redressing the imbalance.
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Érica Custódia de Oliveira and Tania Casado
Going further on a broad understanding of nonwork besides family, this study aims to analyze differences between women and men considering work-nonwork conflict (WNWC) in the…
Abstract
Purpose
Going further on a broad understanding of nonwork besides family, this study aims to analyze differences between women and men considering work-nonwork conflict (WNWC) in the Brazilian context, investigating time spent in eight nonwork dimensions and the dimensions more affected.
Design/methodology/approach
The study was quantitative and descriptive. A survey was conducted, based on a validated WNWC scale. The sample consisted of 338 professionals working in Brazil. Data analysis was conducted through descriptive statistics and analysis of variance.
Findings
Compared to men, women declare higher levels of WNWC considering the eight nonwork dimensions, present greater differences in stress-based conflicts and in more collective dimensions and have marriage or no children associated with more WNWC.
Research limitations/implications
The study highlights the need to include more nonwork aspects into career and management studies to influence organizational practices and individual choices. The main limitation is the non-probabilistic sample (results not generalizable).
Practical implications
Know more about WNWC will help organizations to improve lives by creating practices and a cultural environment to preserve women’s and men’s nonwork times. It may also help people to choose places to work for, matching their nonwork needs.
Social implications
The study reinforces demands from new family arrangements, more couples in dual-career and an aging society: organizations must prepare to have workers that want or need to dedicate time to other interests besides family or children.
Originality/value
It goes further on a broad understanding of nonwork besides family to understand WNWC and how it may affect differently men and women.
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J.N. Pires, F.J. Caramelo, P. Brito, J. Santos and M.F. Botelho
Implant surgery is generally accepted as the best technique for complete teeth replacement. However, it is also the most demanding technique to implement and the most onerous to…
Abstract
Purpose
Implant surgery is generally accepted as the best technique for complete teeth replacement. However, it is also the most demanding technique to implement and the most onerous to the client. It would be helpful to reduce costs and simplify procedures in order that the general public could benefit from implant dentistry. This paper reports a robotic system developed with the objective of studying stress/strain distribution caused by implants inserted in blocks of a polymer. The polymer exhibits the same mechanical properties of the human mandible bone.
Design/methodology/approach
The system includes an industrial robot manipulator, a data acquisition board, strain gauges for stress/strain evaluation and a force/torque sensor (equipped with accelerometers) placed on the robot wrist. The objective is to optimize the number of implants and their placement/orientation, contributing in this way to reduce the overall cost of implant surgery. The system is presented in detail and explored for drilling and implant insertion.
Findings
The preliminary results are encouraging and indicate the usefulness of the system. The three presented situations correspond to general clinical procedures and, as can be concluded from the preliminary results, the intensity of the applied forces increase with the inclination of the drilling tool. Since, the depth of the holes is the same, it can be also concluded that the dissipated energy is superior in the 30° hole. Apart from inclination all the other properties remain constant during the force evaluation; therefore, we expected that during the perforation of the 30° hole the temperature should raise more than in the other types of holes. This aspect will be addressed in detail in the near future (just by carefully monitoring the temperature) because living tissues should not be submitted to temperatures greater than 42°C. The observed fluctuation in the modulus of the force during a drilling cycle suggests that the material is not homogeny. The results indicate that the strain is larger in the vertical load. This might be related with the fact that inclined applied forces imply a distribution of the strain/stress forces at least for two directions.
Research limitations/implications
Further work will include more sensors to obtain all the data.
Practical implications
This will be of interest to the implant industry, since low prices will significantly increase the market and consequently the need for implant products. Currently, implant surgery as well as teeth replacements are based on a few general rules that, very often, do not take into account the specific needs of the patient. This happens independently of clinician expertise, which does not have enough biomechanical information to plan the number, location and orientation of implants in a specific surgery. Consequently, in most of the cases the needs are overestimated, to guarantee long‐term success, which implies expensive procedures and more discomfort for patients.
Originality/value
This work reports on a robotic system to simplify implant procedures.