F115: Driving Manufacturing Innovation with AI-Powered Smart Robotic Cells in High-Mix Surface Finishing Applications

Many surface finishing operations tend to be ergonomically challenging and therefore have a very high labor churn. Therefore, many manufacturing companies are facing an acute labor shortage. The recent advances in physics-informed AI enable robots to program themselves from task descriptions. The availability of 3D vision and force sensors is enabling robots to enable automation in high-mix applications by accounting for part variabilities and adapting the process in real-time. The first part of this presentation will discuss how manufacturers are using AI-powered robotic cells to increase human productivity, reduce ergonomically challenging work, compress cycle times, and expand capacity. Eliminating the constraints imposed by human’s physical capabilities enables many manufacturing innovations. The second part of this presentation will discuss how AI-powered smart robotics cells are being used to realize dramatic reduction in use of consumables, enabling sustainable production, construction of digital twins to support downstream applications, and traceability assurance.