Principal investigator: Gregory Foy
University: York College of Pennsylvania
Industry partners: MRG Laboratories and Airline Hydraulics Corporation
MRG Labs is a developer and manufacturer of analytical instrumentation and consumables for machinery lubricant analysis, while also providing grease and oil analysis services. Currently, most grease analysis tasks in the lab are completed by lab technicians. Automation in the laboratory setting provides an opportunity to reduce the amount of time lab technicians spend completing some of the most basic, manual tasks, allowing for more time spent on complex tests. Overall, this increases the number of samples able to be run per day and improves the repeatability of the analysis tasks. MRG has partnered with York College of PA to lease a cobot and develop a process for automated grease testing. Now that the basic process is complete, MRG and YCP hope to create a robust user interface with priority overrides, incorporate a landmark system to guide cobot movement and add the ability to handle hazardous materials safely.