Robot Assistants for Biopharmaceutical Service

Abstract

Abstract In the production in many industries today human workers are doing a lot of heavy lifting and repetitive tasks, such as assembling car parts. By introducing robots to the workplace and automating the epetitive tasks, companies could get a more efficient workflow and at the same time fewer human workers who are calling in sick because of injuries they got from doing repetitive tasks. In the bio pharmaceutical industry there is an effort being made to automate repetitive tasks. AstraZeneca who created this project wants to automate a process in the testing of inhalers, which today is done by human workers. This thesis aims to program an industrial robot to be able to grasp an inhaler and place it in a docking station, thus automating some of the tasks in the testing process of inhalers. To reach the goal some sub tasks were created: create a gripper and design and build a base for the robot so it can operate from a stable ground. Develop a perception module to detect a workstation where inhalers are located on. Develop a robot control software and integrate it with the perception module in order for the robot to be able to manipulate its arm and grasp an inhaler. The result shows that a functioning base has been constructed which can withstand the weight of the robot. The perception module is able to detect ArUco markers and thereof will be able to identify a table carrying the inhaler. The simulation of the robots movements show some significant results where the arm is able to move to the different compartments placed on the working station. In conclusion all the separate tasks is functioning but not as fully intended. A real world testing was not made which makes this project an introduction into automation in the workplace and similar future works can use this as a stepping stone.