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Roll No:
(To be filled in by the candidate)

PSG COLLEGE OF TECHNOLOGY, COIMBATORE - 641 004

SEMESTER EXAMINATIONS, NOVEMBER 2018
BE - PRODUCTION ENGINEERING Semester: 7
15P701 AUTOMATION AND ROBOTICS
Time: 3 Hours Maximum Marks: 100
INSTRUCTIONS:
1. Answer ALL questions. Each question carries 20 Marks.
2. Subdivision (a) carries 3 marks each, subdivision (b) carries 7 marks each and
subdivision (c) carries 10 marks each.
3. Course Outcome : Qn.1 Qn.2 CO2 Qn.3 CO3 Qn.4 CO4 Qn.5 CO5
CO1
Table …… …… …… …… ……
. . . . .
1. a) “Even in a highly automated production system, human workers are still a necessary
component”. Comment on the statement.
b) (i) Differentiate the hard and soft product variety. (2)
(ii) A certain batch of parts is routed through six machines in a batch production
plant. The setup and operation times for each machine are given in the table
below. Batch size is 200 and the average non-operation time per machine is 15
hr. Determine manufacturing lead time and hourly production rate for operation 4.
(5)
Machine 1 2 3 4 5 6
Setup time (hr) 5 3 6 4 5 3
Operation time (min) 3.0 3.3 8.2 3.9 4.5 2.3
c) Reproduce the following table in the answer sheet and fill the missing columns.
Substantiate the answer with suitable justification.
Related Production variables and
S.No Automation Strategy(s)
parameters
To reduce the number of separate work
1
centers and manufacturing lead time
Improved material handling and
2
storage
3 On-line inspection
To reduce setup time and programming
4
time

2. a) Outline the operation of the walking beam transfer system.

b) (i) An assembly unit performs 10 operations using a dedicated workstation for each
operation. The workstations include two riveting stations, one welding station (five
welding operations are done simultaneously); six fastening stations and the last
station perform spray painting. The finished part from the last station is taken
directly to the storage locations. The synchronous transfer is to be followed. With
appropriate reasons, suggest a suitable configuration of a flow line that can be
used for this application. (3)
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(ii) When a station breakdown occurs, what are the possible events that may happen
to a working part at that station? For these events, how to determine the
frequency of line stops per cycle? (4)
c) (i) A 30 station transfer line has an ideal cycle time of 0.75 min, an average
downtime of 8 min per line stop occurrence, and a station failure frequency of
0.01 for all stations. To improve the line efficiency three proposals have been
submitted. The proposals are:
1. A storage buffer between stations 15 and 16,
2. A storage buffer between stations 11 and 12,
3. Two storage buffers located between stations 10 and 11, and between
stations 20 and 21,
Analyze the problem and recommend the appropriate proposal for this transfer
line.
(OR)
(ii) An assembly process consists of 6 operations is to be automated. The
operations, the element times, the probability of defective parts and the
probability that a defective part causes a station jam are given in the table below.
Station Operations Element Time ‘q’ ‘m’
1 Add part A 4 sec 0.015 0.6
2 Fasten part A 3 sec NA NA
3 Assemble part B 5 sec 0.01 0.8
4 Add part C 4 sec 0.02 1.0
5 Fasten part C 3 sec NA NA
6 Assemble part D 6 sec 0.01 0.5
Two proposals have been submitted for this assembly process. The proposals
are:
1. A dial indexing machine with 6 stations that perform assembly operation on a
base part with the indexing time of 2 sec. When a jam occurs, it requires 1.5
min to release the jam and put the machine back in operation.
2. A single station assembly machine with a handling time of 7 sec and average
downtime of 1.5 min.
Determine production rate of assemblies containing no defective parts and
proportion uptime for the proposals. Analyze the problem and recommend the
appropriate proposal for this assembly process. Also, identify the reason for the
variation in production rate and proportion uptime.
3. a) Give the significance of the term “Just-in-place parts production” with respect to
Modular Production Systems.
b) (i) List the objectives that a company may want to achieve by installing an ASRS. (2)
(ii) Under what circumstances is process monitoring a suitable alternative to actual
inspection of the quality characteristic of the part or product? Develop a
schematic model of the architecture for an online machining process monitoring
of hard turning process. (5)

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c) A fully automated large manufacturing system uses power and free method for work
part transfer. A set of AGVs are to be used for handling the heavy work parts. The
layout shown in Figure 1 requires the AGV pathway network to be changed
frequently. Vehicles travel counterclockwise around the loop to deliver loads from the
load station to the unload station. Loading time at the load station = 0.75 min, and
unloading time at the unload station = 0.50 min. The following performance
parameters are given: vehicle speed = 50 m/min, availability = 0.95 and traffic factor
= 0.90. Operator efficiency does not apply, so Ew = 1.0. A total of 40 deliveries per
hour must be completed by the AGVS. Fill the following table based on the above
information. Substantiate the answers with appropriate reasons.

Figure 1 (All dimensions are in m)

S.No AGV Characteristics Type or method that best suits the

application
1 Type of AGV
2 AGV Guidance and routing
3 Load transfer
4 Dispatch control system
5 Number of AGV’s
4. a) List the factors that should be considered for gripper selection and design.
b) (i) A large Cartesian coordinate robot has one orthogonal slide with a total range of
80 cm. One of the specifications on the robot is that it has a maximum control
resolution of 0.025 cm. On this particular axis, determine the number of bits of
storage capacity which the robot’s control memory must possess to provide this
level of precision. (3)
(ii) Explain the effect of following factors on the robot speed. (4)
1. The accuracy with which the wrist must be positioned
2. The distances to be moved
c) Explain with neat sketch the working principle of a vacuum gripper operated by
venturi device. The same gripper is capable of drawing a negative pressure of
28 kPa compared to atmospheric pressure. The gripper is to be used for lifting
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stainless steel plates, each plate having dimensions of 38 cm by 89 cm and weighing

24 kg. Determine the diameter of the suction cups to be used for the gripper if it has
been decided that two suction cups will be used for the gripper for greater stability. A
factor of safety of 1.5 should be used in the design computations.
5. a) “Trajectory planning for robots is easier to carry out in Cartesian coordinate system”.
Comment on the statement.
b) (i) Determine the values to which the angles of a two DOF RR configuration
manipulator must be set in order to achieve the point (16, 12) in space, if the
length of links 1 and 2 are 0.3 m and 0.25 m respectively. (2)
(ii) A point P (5, 4, 3) T is attached to a frame (n, o, a) and is subjected to the
transformations next. Find the coordinates of the point relative to the reference
frame at the conclusion of these transformations. (5)
 Rotation of 90° about X-axis.
 Followed by a translation of (5, 3, 6) about (x, y, z)
 Followed by a rotation of 90° about Z-axis
c) For the 3-DOF robot shown in Figure 2, assign the coordinate frames as necessary
based on the D-H representation, give the parameter table, and derive the forward
kinematic equation of the robot.

Figure 2

/END/
FD/RL

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