FUZZY LOGIC ROBOTICS
FUZZY LOGIC MAKES ROBOTICS AGILE AT MBDA MBDA is a leading European manufacturer in the aerospace and armaments sector, specializing in the design of missiles and missile systems for the operational needs of the three branches of the military (army, navy and air force). MBDA France’s Bourges site specializes in the manufacture of tactical missile equipment utilising several key technologies: mechanical manufacturing (metal and composite materials) and electromechanical assembly.
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he company wanted to robotise certain processes in small series or even single unit production, by allowing an operator with no programming skills to teach the robotic system, in just a few seconds, the process to be carried out, and then to execute the cycle with complete confidence without human supervision. Fuzzy Logic’s Repplix™ application software module addresses all aspects of this requirement in a cost-effective manner. The first use case selected was the tedious, manual cleaning of the moulds used to manufacture composites.
05 - AUTOMATION Mag - June 2021
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MBDA France’s Bourges site produces numerous small series of composite parts that have to be moulded. Each mould is manually stripped clean before being used in production. This operation is complex: the parts to be treated are diverse and numerous and in each series, the level of residue to be stripped off, and its location may vary. This method of operation is tedious, and it also requires protecting the operator from exposure to toxic substances. Vincent RAFIN, Head of the Factory of the Future Project at MBDA explains: “At MBDA we look for agility when it comes to robotisation. We want to robotise tasks which cause muscolo-skeletal disorders in our operators, and which occur in certain cases in the production of very small series or even single parts,
so we need to keep the non-recurring costs of programming as low as possible. Programming a robot to define the trajectories of a laser is not the right approach for small series production, it is time-consuming and costly and has to be done by a roboticist.” For advice, MBDA turned to Meliad, a recognized expert in the aerospace industry for surface preparation and laser stripping, and to Staubli. The latter recommended Fuzzy Logic for its universal, visual programming solutions. Programming a laser stripper on the fly, with a non-roboticist operator Fuzzy Logic developed Repplix™, an extension of its Fuzzy Studio™ software, in cooperation with MBDA.
