Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to provide a technical review of a new Bernoulli gripper development using computed fluid dynamics (CFD) modeling, and also to outline an appropriate independent testing method for validating and evaluating process capability in terms of automated thin wafer handling. The investigation has been carried out by a collaborative way of Festo and Fraunhofer IPA as a connecting link between applied research and industrial needs. Design/methodology/approach - Following an introduction, the paper first describes the basic development and fundamental principles of a gripper based on Bernoulli's law. The gripper was dimensioned and designed with the aid of CFD methods. The performance of the hardware was tested using extreme parameter settings while gripping thin, fragile workpieces. The performance of the gripper was tested from the aspects of shortest cycle times, positioning accuracy and air consumption and followed a manufacturer-independent design of experiments. A characterization of the gripping force generated during horizontal and vertical tension tests provides conclusive closed loop validation with regard to the gripper's air flow in the initial CFD model. Findings - Photovoltaic (PV) grippers are challenging components since the handling objects, 200-120 µmm thin crystalline silicon wafers with an area of 156 × 156 mm, are one of the most fragile parts as far as required handling speeds and cycle times are concerned. Originality/value - The paper provides a detailed technical review of a CFD application used in the development of a Bernoulli gripper and also describes a method for testing and evaluating PV grippers for industrial scale applications. The article presents the results of a close cooperation regarding an industrial development (Festo AG & Co. KG) and independent applied research (Fraunhofer IPA) for advanced product benchmarking and validation in a relatively young but dynamic and increasingly-automated PV industry

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For fast and precise flow measurement using coriolis flowmeters it is necessary to accurately determinate the phase difference between two noisy position signals. These signals are digitized and filtered before being processed by phase tracking algorithms. This work investigates the influence of discretization and noise shaping on different phase tracking methods and their estimation efficiency, computational complexity, real-time performance and memory requirements.

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The paper describes the control of a servopneumatic gripper with individually movable jaws. After the description of the developed gripper, the position controller, which uses an observer to generate a velocity signal, is introduced. The observer is created and parameterized with the Simulation Tool DSHplus so that an easy creation and usage also for people with a miner comprehension of non-linearpneumatic systems is guaranteed. At least some measurement results are shown. By means of the good positioning accuracy with a deviation smaller of 0.1 mm the operability and the capability of the presented controller system can be demonstrated.