THE AUTOMATIC PROGRAMMING OF PRODUCTION MACHINERY FOR DE-FLASHING PLASTIC PARTS

Abstract

This paper presents a new method for customising virtual task machines by mapping general purpose machinery programming languages to a new restricted programming language. A structured programming environment is used to verify task rules with a task expert, and to control the machines using the restricted language. This new technique has been used to create a virtual task de-flashing machine. The concept of task machines was first presented by Strickland and Hollis (1992) and then by Strickland (1992). Task machines are machines which are constrained for a task, but are not product dependent. A task machine would therefore be specified in terms of task rather than functional abilities, for example, a robot which can ‘spray panels’ rather than a robot which has ‘six degrees of freedom’.