A Dual-Arm Robot That Autonomously Lifts Up and Tumbles Heavy Plates Using Crane Pulley Blocks

This paper proposes a combined planning and optimization method that enables a dual-arm robot to lift up and flip heavy plates using crane pulley blocks. The problem is motivated by the low payload of modern collaborative robots. Instead of directly manipulating heavy plates that collaborative robots cannot afford, the paper develops a planner for collaborative robots to operate crane pulley blocks. The planner assumes a target plate is pre-attached to the crane hook. It optimizes dual-arm action sequences and plans the robot’s dual-arm motion that pulls the rope of the crane pulley blocks to lift up the plate. The crane pulley blocks reduce the payload that each robotic arm needs to bear. When the plate is lifted up to a satisfying pose, the planner plans a sliding-pushing motion for one of the robot arms to tumble over the plate while considering force and moment constraints. The article presents the technical details of the planner and several experiments and analysis carried out using a dual-arm robot made by two Universal Robots UR3 arms. The influence of various parameters and optimization goals are investigated and compared in depth. The results show that the proposed planner is flexible and efficient. This paper is motivated by a cleaning process in a factory that produces sewage press machines. The pressboard of sewage press machines could be as heavy as 1000 kg. Human workers need to flip and clean both sides of the board before installing them to the main axis of a sewage machine. Their solution is using a gantry crane. They attach the board to the crane hook using bearing belts, activate the crane to lift up the board. When the board is raised to a satisfying pose, the workers turn the board over by pushing it. Motivated by human workers’ actions, we developed the planner presented in this paper. We assumed crane pulley blocks in the experiments and analysis, but in practice, they may be replaced with electronic ones to improve effort and efficiency. Using the electronic ones will be a sub-problem since there is no need for pulling ropes. The proposed method is expected to help a company’s technicians better judge if they need a heavy payload manipulator or keep their current crane equipment while employing several intelligent collaborative robots to operate them. As a result, it may help to accelerate the upgrade of manufacturing sites while reducing reforming budgets. Note to Practitioners—This paper is motivated by a cleaning process in a factory that produces sewage press machines. The pressboard of sewage press machines could be as heavy as 1000 kg. Human workers need to flip and clean both sides of the board before installing them to the main axis of a sewage machine. Their solution is using a gantry crane. They attach the board to the crane hook using bearing belts, activate the crane to lift up the board. When the board is raised to a satisfying pose, the workers turn the board over by pushing it. Motivated by human workers’ actions, we developed the planner presented in this paper. We assumed crane pulley blocks in the experiments and analysis, but in practice, they may be replaced with electronic ones to improve effort and efficiency. Using the electronic ones will be a sub-problem since there is no need for pulling ropes. The proposed method is expected to help a company’s technicians better judge if they need a heavy payload manipulator or keep their current crane equipment while employing several intelligent collaborative robots to operate them. As a result, it may help to accelerate the upgrade of manufacturing sites while reducing reforming budgets.