A new contactless conveyor system for handling clean and delicate products using induced air flows

Abstract

In this paper, a new contactless conveyor system based on an original aerodynamic traction principle is described and experimented. This device is able to convey without any contact flat objects like silicon wafer, glass sheets or foodstufff thanks to an air cushion and induced air flows. A model of the system is established and the identification of the parameters is carried out. A closed-loop control is proposed for one dimension position control and position tracking. The PID-controller gives good performances for different reference signals. Its robustness to object change and perturbation rejection are also tested.

Robust control of a planar manipulator for flexible and contactless handling

“…If we compare these results with the one of previous works [16], the experimental results in closed loop control with the H 1 controller are better than with the PID controller designed before. The settling time was 1.6 s with the object number 1, what is similar to the results with the H 1 controller, but the overshoot was more than 4% whereas it is 2.65% with the H 1 controller.…”

“…This device is an air hockey table which is able to convey objects using a traction principle and vertical air jets. We also experimented a PID controller in [16] which gave good results with one object (overshoot less than 5% and settling time of 1.60 s).…”

2-DOF contactless distributed manipulation using superposition of induced air flows

“…In previous works [14], 1-DOF position control has been experimented on the same device using a PID controller. We chose to control y-directed lines of jets in order to control the x-position of objects.…”

“…Moreover our device is more precise and manipulation can be achieve faster. Previous works have concerned the evaluation of the maximal velocity of transported objects [15] and one degree-offreedom (DOF) position control of objects [14]. This paper introduces in section II an analytic model of the velocity field of the induced air flow according to the spatial configuration of vertical air jets.…”

2-DOF contactless distributed manipulation using superposition of induced air flows

“…Previous works have concerned the evaluation of the maximal velocity of transported objects [15] and one degree-offreedom (DOF) position control of objects [14]. This paper introduces in section II an analytic model of the velocity field of the induced air flow according to the spatial configuration of vertical air jets.…”