SCRA - Applied Research and Commercialization Services

Robotics-Related Disciplines

SCRA currently leads several national collaborations that are developing advanced robotics capabilities and implementing both new and existing robotics technologies in response to DoD manufacturing challenges. Our teams’ experience in managing robotics related projects and advanced manufacturing technology development is evidenced in the following examples.

The Portable Automated Straightener for Deckplates, a recently completed project under the SCRA Applied R&D-managed National Shipbuilding Research Program (NSRP) Program, developed a portable, automated robotic device to straighten deck plating that has been distorted by welding and module assembly procedures during ship construction. The PAS-D prototype has demonstrated in shipyard production work the capability to cut the deckplate-straightening time requirement almost in half compared to the manual method, and it frees up skilled workers for other jobs.

Based on the success and industry needs for this kind of cost-saving capability, a follow-on project is developing a similar portable robot to automatically straighten distorted steel plating on vertical bulkheads and a ship's exterior hull.

The Line Heating System Project developed a system to efficiently and accurately form complex shapes in typical metal plate sections. The robotic device uses a streamlined finite element modeling technique to compute the heating pattern required to induce the desired curvature in metal plate. This SCRA Applied R&D-managed project successfully transformed a multi-day, manual trial-and-error process into a semi-automated process that takes approximately four hours

The SCRA Applied R&D-managed Compact Agile Material Mover (CAMM) Project, with its holonomic wheel and control system, successfully integrated novel Human Amplification Technology into a proof-of-concept transporter test bed, advanced enough such that it was successfully tested at sea.

To learn more about the CAMM project highlighted above, go to: http://seabasing.nsrp.org/projects/camm.html.

Enabling the offline programming of robots, the Automatic Generation of Control Programs (AUTOGEN) software interprets workpiece component geometries and relationships, creating appropriate associations with the manufacturing space and parametric specification of welding processes. AUTOGEN is an enabling technology for realizing the full economic potential of implementing flexible automation and robotics in shipbuilding. The independence of AUTOGEN from specific process, data source, process equipment and tool manipulation hardware reinforces the notion of a general solution able to address a large domain of applications in many industries.

Product Centric Facility Design, a recently completed project under the SCRA Applied R&D-managed Center for Naval Shipbuilding Technology (CNST), increased the use of robotic welding for shipbuilding by leveraging existing Computer Aided Design (CAD) data. To achieve this, a Weldment Ranker software application was developed to evaluate construction approved structural piece-parts and prioritize them according to their suitability for robotic welding. This shipbuilding production tool is enhanced by an Electric Boat (EB) construction process, the OneStop STEP Center, which was developed to quickly extract the structural data that exists in the EB CAD system and make it available to the robotic system.

To learn more about this project, please visit: http://www.cnst.us/Projects/product_centric.html.

The SCRA Applied R&D-managed Hybrid Laser/Gas Metal Arc Pipe Welding System Project developed a new technology combining laser beam welding with gas metal arc welding. The system includes a 6-axis articulate robot arm coupled to a large rotary positioner serving as the 7th robot axis and allows welds to be completed in a single pass with welding speeds up to four times as fast as conventional welding techniques - potentially a 30-fold reduction in welding time. This Center for Naval Shipbuilding Technology (CNST) project was successfully completed in November 2007.

To learn more about the Hybrid Laser/Gas Metal Arc Pipe Welding System Project, please visit: http://www.cnst.us/Projects/hybrid_welding.html.

The SCRA Applied R&D-managed Automated Storage and Retrieval System (ASRS), is the first at-sea application of autonomous warehousing, soon to be retrofitted on board a replenishment vessel. The photograph to the left is of the land-based technology demonstrator used for testing before the install of the larger more-improved version on actual Navy ships.

To learn more about the ASRS, please visit:
http://seabasing.nsrp.org.

Servo Robot is teaming with 3 shipyards to develop a multi-process Portable Welding Robot with integrated modular laser sensing and remote process monitoring for weld seam searching and tracking. This portable robot will be able to perform multiple welding processes such as Gas Metal Arc Welding and Submerged Arc Welding, as well as plasma cutting and gouging. This project is being funded by the SCRA Applied R&D-led National Shipbuilding Research Program (NSRP).

An Automated Weapons Assembly Initiative has several small businesses teamed with larger industry partners, to provide Naval Air Forces with a viable munitions assembly system to support the increased aircraft sortie generation demand. The SCRA Applied R&D-managed Next Generation Manufacturing Technology Initiative (NGMTI) has several projects aimed at applying advanced manufacturing capabilities to DoD needs.

Three separate teams, BAE Systems, General Dynamics Robotics Systems, and Foster-Miller have individually partnered with a diverse small business group (PaR Systems; Agile Planet, Inc; Robotics Research Group, St. Onge) and academia (Carnegie Mellon; MIT; University of Texas) to ultimately provide the rapid, automated weapons assembly capability urgently needed for power projection ashore.

The recently-awarded Remote Climbing Robot for Automated Welding Processes Project is developing an autonomous, robotic welding platform capable of operating while traveling vertically up a ship’s hull. This robotic welder will have an integrated non-contact weld-seam tracking and feature extraction sensor system coupled with a state-of-the-art navigation system and weld control algorithm. This project is ongoing as part of the SCRA Applied R&D-managed National Shipbuilding Research Program portfolio.

The SCRA Applied R&D-managed, American Metalcasting Consortium's (AMC) partners are using robotics technologies to support legacy weapon systems.

Dramatically reduced leadtime for legacy weapon systems parts is the key to the Defense Logistic Agency partnership with the AMC. The innovative Clinkenbeard Process reduces the leadtime for military cast spare parts from 6 to 12 months to 6 to 12 days. When reworking technical data is required, including a solid model of the part, leadtimes could exceed a year. Even when a solid model must be generated first, the Clinkenbeard Process can supply a cast part in less than a month. The secret is computer generated molds with no tooling.

To read more about the AMC, please visit: http://amc.scra.org.

Robots are commonly used in the metalcasting industry for the investment (lost wax) and lost foam processes. Nothing unique to our partners, but some of our partners use robots when they provide short leadtime casting solutions to the Defense Logistics Agency legacy weapon system parts problem. Lost Foam has been more commonly a research development in the SCRA Applied R&D-managed Department of Energy program, Energy-Saving Melting and Revert Reduction Technology (E-SMARRT). GM has been the major industry research partner in this project along with The University of Alabama – Birmingham as the university partner. Though SCRA Applied R&D has not been at the center of the Lost Foam development, we have been managing parts of it.

To read more about E-SMARRT, please visit: http://www.e-smarrt.org.

Deck Plate Straightener