True Position Robotics

Championing our local engineering eco-system

True Position Robotics — 18/09/2019

In an age of globalisation, big data, Industry 4.0, Internet of Things, … Sometimes its just great to have a face-to-face chat, share and challenge ideas and collaborate to develop better solutions. I have been working with Conway Precision Engineering for the best part of twenty years now – and it’s always been a pleasure. It’s simply a business you wantto work with.

In the past couple of years Garry (MD) and his team have been growing the business and on Tuesday had the official opening of their new factory. It was a grand affair, with lots of people who have been helping them including HSBC Bank, Birmingham City Council and Made in the Midlands.

There were also lots of blue-chip companies who have benefitted from their work – including (in no particular order) Rolls-Royce, Mercedes AMG, Lear, Jaguar and Land Rover, Meggitt, Gardner Aerospace, JCB, …

It was an honour to showcase some of the solutions we have created, helped by them. Their idea was to balance the traditional jig and gauge work they do, with True Position Robotics Ltd, TPR (www.tpr.solutions) advanced engineering work – where time and time again they manufacture and support us in our products.

The guest of honour was Cllr Yvonne Mosquito the Lord Mayor of Birmingham. Here she is interacting with a demo we made using a collaborative robot supplied by the local office of KUKA Robotics in Wednesbury (www.kuka.com). Conway have made the robot tool using Rapid Prototyping. This is part of a solution we promote in the UK from Belgium technology company FRS Robotics (www.frsrobotics.com). Videos were shown of their process for automotive assembly inspection of “closures” (doors, bonnets, tailgates, …) This uses a collaborative robot (from KUKA) and the FRS adaptive control development.

The robot “feels” its way around assembly and feedback from an ultrasonic sensor is used to adjust the position of the robot to the joint to ensure all the measurements are optimal. This inspection proves the joints are good (will not corrode) – or highlights the need for an intervention. Its currently going into production for the new Audi electric SUV.

Here I am with Garry, explaining our solution for geometric inspection. Its basis is an optical coordinate measurement machine working just from infrared light. But it serves the same purpose as a physical X,Y,Z,Rx,Ry,Rz measurement machine. This is developed by Northern Digital Inc (www.ndigital.com) in Canada. The sensor used to acquire the surface geometry is the latest blue light laser from Nikon Metrology (www.nikonmetrology.com), that is made in the East Midlands. We integrate and resell both of these companies’ products used in our solution.

My business has integrated the devices together to create a complete measurement system based around an innovative housing we designed/produced. Conway not only machined the parts, created the rapid prototyping parts, but also involved in the different phases of prototyping. This is the first working model, with two other systems in build (a demo system and a customer sale).

Videos of another of our solutions, which we call ARC+ (Adaptive Robot Control Plus) was shown. This is for high accuracy robotic drilling and machining. Our latest version (Generation 4.0) is being used in an aerospace company. Conway have been involved in this task for many years, not only in machining – but in assembly and pneumatics (and the odd brainstorming session!)

Here is the Conway team with the VIP guests (although I cannot see June!). Perhaps that’s because of the Aston Villa livery – and yes, Aston Villa sent visitors as well! (the factory is really close to Villa Park).

But whilst the day was all about the new factory opening, there was time for a talk from Parkinson’s UK (who are the Charity Conway support). As ever Garry and his team give generously with their time, as well as their actions. I wish them every success in the new building (and hope some of that rubs off to TPR). We are part of a community, and days like this are very uplifting.

TPR Starts Sub-Contract Inspection Services

True Position Robotics — 27/01/2020

As we strive to develop and establish the True Position Robotics brand, it is essential that we offer a range of comprehensive solutions to fulfil all the needs of our clients.

After compiling market research, we have identified that there is a need amongst the sectors we operate in for subcontracted inspection solutions to combine with the full turnkey projects we already offer.

With an increase to our already skilled workforce we are well equipped to now meet the needs of our clients and we look forward to working with their quality teams in order to deliver the most thorough measurement solutions available. Including services that incorporate the use of the state of the art blue laser light technology from Nikon Metrology, a Pro CMM optical tracker from NDI and the ScanTRAK II again from NDI, you can see the ScanTRAK II’s capabilities here .

All the solutions offered integrate with Nikon Metrology’s focus inspection software, which enables our clients to gain better insights meaning faster decision making!

Open Day Review

True Position Robotics — 26/11/2019

On the 14^th of November we hosted our second annual open house event where attendees were invited to the Jubilee Conference Centre on the University of Nottingham Jubilee Campus to watch presentations and interact with demonstrations of TPR’s solutions.

The morning paid particular attention to robot integration with a focus on high accuracy robotic applications. Alex kicked off the day with a presentation outlining TPR’s product portfolio along with a brief outline on the background of the company and how TPR has become what it is today.

The next part of the morning was Roger focusing on adaptive robot control (ARC) and in particular how ‘ARC’ is useful for a manufacturer needing high precision. TPR’s product ARC is a patented high precision live optical guidance system to ensure any standard industrial robot is positioned within 0.1mm of its nominal programmed position (as defined in any CADCAM system). This differs to off-line calibrated robots or open-loop predictive algorithms, which have much wider tolerances.

A brief demonstration showcasing ARC’s capabilities was performed by Simon giving the applicants of the open day a look first-hand how ARC+ (ARC “plus” machine learning with the target True Position tolerance being +/-0.127mm) could work for them. ARC+ includes extra infomatics including SPC. This is using an integrated Prolink QC-Calc Real Time interface.

The morning also contained an introduction from Roger into the needs of creating robot programs, from CAD, to successfully and seamlessly transfer from virtual world into production. This is illustrated with a simple off-line robot program, created in Process Simulate (from Siemens), to a KUKA robot.

Roger also gave an insight into some of the integration projects TPR are involved in with our partners such as the collaboration with Belgian company FRS Robotics. FRS have developed a unique type of adaptive robot control for ultrasonic inspection of sheet metal “Body In White” (BIW) closure panels. Using a KUKA collaborative robot, the system “finds” the panel using force feedback sensors in the robot arm. This saves on complexity of the tooling, and as it’s a collaborative robot – no guarding is required as its completely safe to work side-by-side the operators (which Jonny demonstrated in the afternoon).

The afternoon began with a focus on inspection, with an overview of our solutions and the particular applications its designed for. This was outlined by a presentation from Alex explaining just how much the 3D laser scanning market is forecasted to grow not just globally but in particular the U.K and Europe. This led on to an insight into the 3D inspection solutions TPR have on offer which can be robotic or manual.

The afternoon showcased TPR’s own robot inspection solution “air” (automated inspection and reporting); with a demo on KUKA KR10 from Simon. This was performed on an aerospace assembly, inspecting holes, countersinks and form. The unique design of the scanner housing and fully automated integration has all been done in-house at True Position Robotics. The sensor is the latest blue light laser scanner from Nikon Metrology (H120) and the reporting/analysis software “Focus” is also from Nikon Metrology, used to get the maximum capabilities from the sensor. This is all combined with an NDI Pro CMM optical tracker and you can see it all in action in this short YouTube clip here.

Along with the demonstration into robotic inspection Amanda also presented a manual inspection solution – the ScanTRAK II from NDI. This is particularly useful in low volume applications, including Pilot Plants, and for parts larger than a desktop (multi-cameras can greatly enhance measurement volume). The session was interactive, where participants were encouraged to capture the data themselves. This was on an automotive sheet metal assembly, inspecting features and form and instead of a robot performing the scanning the H120 from Nikon Metrology is attached to the NDI ScanTRAK II.

Another interactive demo showcased the IIWA co-bot from our partners KUKA which was mounted on a portable (Flex-fellow) base. The capabilities of the co-bot were highlighted by Jonny who encouraged participants to engage with the co-bot which showed how useful the robot could be if integrated into a working environment due to its capability of working alongside workers on a production line.

The day concluded with external presentation by Ingobert Schmadel from Inora/Ellipsoid Analytics in the USA. We are using their technology for product development /analysis / verification. The technology is used in a range of industries/applications from machine tool/CMM calibration/verification to data mining. The presentation was very insightful, and we thank Ingobert for coming over and presenting for us and the applicants present.

For any questions feel free to email alex@tpr.solutions.