Throwing Objects -- A bio-inspired Approach for the Transportation of Parts

Abstract

-In this paper a new way of transporting parts in production systems is described. Based on the fact that in nature the highest speeds are reached at flight, a bio-inspired technical approach for the fast transportation of objects is derived. Objects shall be thrown by a throwing device and are caught again by a catching device. Such a transport approach requires besides proper working throwing and catching devices a high precision object detection mechanism. For object detection a 3D Photonic Mixer Device (PMD) sensor is proposed. By assembling of this sensor on the catching device, it can detect the flying objects on their trajectories like a raptor which is hunting a prey. The technical feasibility of this concept is investigated and possible applications are described.

Transport by throwing - A bio-inspired approach

“…Conveyors have to be disassembled and reassembled which takes a long time. A very fast reconfigurable transport approach is to throw and catch objects [7]. Reconfiguration of such a system is limited to assigning a new target to the throwing instance and a new object origin to the catching instance.…”

Automated throwing and capturing of cylinder-shaped objects

“…The potentials of this approach have already been described in [1], [2]. In this paper, a prototype implementation is presented which is capable of automatically throwing and capturing of cylinder-shaped objects with varying masses and geometric dimensions.…”

Parts assembly by throwing manipulation with a one-joint arm

“…Transportation by throwing objects can produce the following advantages: (1) mechanical equipments are simplified or less required; (2) flexibility of the systems is enhanced; and (3) the transportation processes are speeded up [3]. We consider the applications of the throwing manipulation to transporting, orienting, sorting and assembling various types of objects.…”