Most shoe manufacturing processes are not yet automated; it puts restrictions on increasing productivity. Among them, adhesive application processes particularly are holding the most workers and working hours. In addition, the working environment is very poor due to the toxicity of adhesive agents. In the case of automating an adhesive application process by using a robot, robot teaching by playback is difficult to produce high productivity because the kinds of shoes to be taught mount up to several thousands. To cope with it, it is necessary to generate robot working paths automatically according to the kind, the size, or the right and the left of shoes, and also to teach the generated paths to a robot automatically. This paper presents a method to generate three-dimensional robot working paths off-line based on CAD data in an automatic adhesive spray system for shoe outsoles and uppers. First, this paper describes how to extract the three-dimensional data of an outsole outline from a two-dimensional CAD drawing file. Second, it describes how to extract the three-dimensional data of an upper profiling line from the threedimensional scanning data that is opened in a three-dimensional CAD program. Third, it describes how to generate robot working paths based on the extracted data and the nozzle setting parameters for adhesive spray. Also, a series of experiments for adhesive spray is performed to verify the effectiveness of the presented methods. This study will do much for increasing productivity in shoe manufacturing as a core work of a robotic adhesive spray system.

If one operator in a remote operating room can operate 4 ∼ 5 cranes remotely, which are yard cranes for container loading/unloading in a port container terminal, the port loading/unloading efficiency will dramatically be improved through productivity increase, cost reduction, and so on. This study presents a remote crane control system for container loading/unloading yard cranes of port container terminals. First, a wireless web-based video and audio transmission system to transmit the images and the sounds of a craneyard is designed by using 3 web cameras and a microphone. Next, a TCP/IP-based remote crane control system is presented on the basis of the delay performance simulations of TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) and UDP (User Datagram Protocol) for real-time remote control. The simulation results show that TCP is more advantageous for remote crane control on a local network.

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For successful assembly of deformable parts, information about their deformation and possible misalignments between the holes and their respective mating parts is essential. Such information can be mainly acquired from visual sensors. In this paper, part deformation and misalignment in cylindrical peg-in-hole tasks are measured by using a visual sensing system. First, the configuration and the specifications of the system, such as resolution, are described. Next, a series of experiments to measure the position of an arbitrary point are performed and its measurement accuracy is investigated. Then, an algorithm to estimate the centre-line and deformation of a cylindrical peg and an algorithm to divide and recognize a peg and a hole separately in an image are presented. On the basis of these algorithms, a series of experiments to measure part shape as part deformation are performed. Finally, an algorithm to select two views from the four on the image plane and an algorithm to estimate the centre of an occluded hole are presented. On the basis of these algorithms, a series of experiments to measure misalignment are performed. Experimental results show that the errors in measuring part deformation are approximately less than five or seven times the standard resolution of the system, and the errors in measuring misalignment are less than three or four times the standard resolution. Thereby, the system and the proposed algorithms are effective in measuring part deformation and misalignment and will dramatically increase the success rate in deformable assembly operations.

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