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SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention can include a single or a plurality of similar workstations positioned in sequence
along an assembly line. A movable material handling trans¬portation or transfer robot can be located in between adja¬cent workstations for moving workpieces from one work¬station to the next. The present invention can also include a robot for processing the workpieces while held by the material handling transfer robot in between the adjacent workstations.
The present invention includes a flexible body shop for assembling workpieces using a single or multiple robots and a single or multiple fixtures. The present invention includes movable material handling robots, and stationary material processing robots in combination at the flexible body workstation. The workstation can perform processing operations on multiple workpieces sequentially, and per¬forms different processing operations through the worksta¬tion simultaneously. The material processing robots per¬forming processing operations on the workpieces can be located adjacent the at least one processing path, or in between first and second processing paths and are indepen¬dently movable relative to each other. The workpiece fix¬tures can be provided in the form of interchangeable end effecters connectable to the at least one material handling robot for holding and supporting different workpiece con-figurations by exchanging one interchangeable end effecter configuration for a different interchangeable end effecter workpiece configuration. The interchangeable end effecters can be geometry fixtures for different workpiece configura¬tions to allow processing different workpiece configurations in any desired sequence by changing end effecters automati¬cally to correspond to the next workpiece configuration to be processed.
The present invention can include a plurality of similar workstations positioned in sequence along an assem¬bly line. The at least one material handling robot can hand off a workpiece from a transfer position at one end of the processing path to another material handling robot for movement along another processing path for moving work¬pieces from one workstation to the next and/or can position a workpiece at multiple workstations before transfer. The present invention can also include a material processing robot for processing the workpiece while being held by the material handling robot at the transfer position in between adjacent workstations.
The present invention can provide an electronic control means for coordinating the movement of the material handling robots and/or the material processing robots. The electronic control means can be programmable for process¬ing any mix of workpieces of different configurations in any sequential order. The electronic control means can present the appropriate interchangeable end effecter for connection to a material handling robot in order to move the workpiece along a corresponding processing path to a processing position adj acent the processing path for interaction with the material processing robot or robots located at the processing position. The electronic control means can signal each material handling robot when an exchange of interchange¬able end effecters is necessary in order to process a different workpiece configuration during the next cycle of movement along the processing path. The material processing robot can be controlled with different programmable sequences for the various workpiece configurations to be processed in order to perform the necessary processing operations, by way of example and not limitation such as welding, in an efficient manner for the particular workpiece configuration being processed.
Other objects, advantages and applications of the present invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art when the following description of the best mode contemplated for practicing the invention is read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.