Principal investigator: Omar Ashour
University: Pennsylvania State University
Industry partners: GeorgeKo Industries, Inc.
This proposal outlines a pragmatic automation initiative to assemble molded flowerpots with saucers, leveraging existing injection molding with Cartesian robots, a conveyor for part transfer, by augmenting machine-vision-guided collaborative robot (cobot) for pick-and-place and assembly. The objective is to achieve 100% conformance to customer requirements while reducing cycle time, increasing throughput, enhancing quality, lowering ergonomic risk and operator workload, and creating new value for customers across juvenile products, automotive, medical, consumer, and construction sectors. A second configuration using an autonomous mobile robot (AMR) is included for comparison as the next iteration of end-to-end automation.