Development of Recreating Space Technology for Pipe Joint Manufacturing System With a Dual Industrial Robot

A technology has been developed for recreating in a pipe joint manufacturing plant the measurement space in the field. A dual industrial robot system checks whether each manufactured joint matches the measured positions and orientations of the two pipes to be connected before the joint is sent for installation. The accuracy of robot motion is estimated using off-line robot teaching control provided by a program based on computer-aided design data. A double ball bar (DBB) method is used to frequently check the accuracy of machine tool motion. Testing showed that the developed technology is sufficiently accurate once the positions used in the off-line teaching mode are revised on the basis of the errors in motion obtained with the DBB method.