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T his pa per introd uces a design for agile manufacturing wo rkcells intended fo r light mecha nical assembly o f products mad e from similar co mpone nts (i.e., pa rts families). We define agile manufactu ring as the ability to accomplish rapid changeover from the assembly of one product to the assembly of a different product. Rapid hardware changeover is made possible through the usc of robo ts, flex ible part feeders, modular grippers, and modular assembly hardware. The division of assembly, feeding, and unloading tasks between multiple robots is examined with prioritizat ion based upon assembly time. Rapid software changeover will be facilitated by the usc of a real-time, object-oriented software environment utilizing graphical simulations for off-line software development. An innovative dual VMEbus controller architecture permits an opcn software environment while accommodating the closed natu re of most commercial robot controllers. These agile features perm it new products to be introduced with minimal downtime and system reconfigurat ion.

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