DE102016125528B4 - Method of inspecting a fibrous material deposit and computer program product - Google Patents

Abstract

Method for checking a deposit of a fiber material using an industrial robot when manufacturing fiber composite workpieces, characterized in that initially in an offline programming environment in which a mold with its deposit area, a deposited fiber material (102), the industrial robot and a camera device ( 104) are available, by comparing a measurement window (100) and the deposited fiber material (102), a fiber material area (110) and a non-fiber material area (112) of the measurement window (100) are determined, and the non-fiber material area (112) associated measured values before performing a real Recording of measured values can be excluded from further consideration in order to automatically preselect measured values taking into account a comparison result.

Description

The invention relates to a method for checking a placement of a fiber material using an industrial robot when manufacturing fiber composite workpieces. The invention also relates to a computer program product.

From the DE 10 2013 110 667 A1 a method is known for imaging non-destructive testing of three-dimensional workpieces, in particular fiber composite workpieces, using a camera arranged on an industrial robot, in which a position of the workpiece relative to at least one radiation source is first determined, and then at least one reference mark is projected onto the workpiece using the at least one radiation source , below the camera is aligned to the at least one reference mark and subsequently using the camera, a test image is recorded.

From the DE 10 2013 203 800 A1 a method is known for imaging, non-destructive testing of three-dimensional workpieces, in particular fiber composite workpieces, in which both optical image information and thermographic image information can be used to generate a measurement image.

From the DE 10 2013 213 894 A1 a method is known for imaging non-destructive testing of three-dimensional workpieces, in particular fiber composite workpieces, using an effector for an industrial robot, the effector having an illumination device, a camera device and a control device, the illumination device, the camera device and the control device being structurally and functionally combined in the effector are, the lighting device and the camera device being controlled in a coordinated manner with the aid of the control device.

The object of the invention is to improve a method mentioned at the outset. In addition, the invention is based on the object of improving a computer program product mentioned at the outset.

The object is achieved with a method having the features of claim 1. The object is also achieved with a computer program product having the features of claim 8. Advantageous embodiments and developments are the subject matter of the dependent claims.

The method can be used to test a layer of the fiber material. The method can be used to check an orientation of the fiber material. The method can be used to check fiber angles of the fiber material.

The fiber material can be limp. The fiber material can have at least two crossed fiber systems. The fiber material can have textile properties. The fiber material can be present as a ready-made part. The fiber material can be in the form of a blank. The fiber material can be in the form of a woven, knitted or crocheted fabric, braid, stitched fabric or tape. The fiber material can have organic fibers such as aramid fibers, carbon fibers, polyester fibers, nylon fibers, polyethylene fibers, Plexiglas fibers and/or inorganic fibers such as basalt fibers, boron fibers, glass fibers, ceramic fibers, silica fibers. The fibers can have filaments. The filaments can be combined into rovings. The fiber material can have a first fiber system and a second fiber system. The fibers of a fiber system can be aligned at least approximately in the same way. The fibers of a fiber system can run at least approximately parallel to one another. The fiber material can be a semi-finished fiber product. The fiber material can be a dry semi-finished fiber product.

The fiber material can be used to produce a fiber composite workpiece. The fiber material can be used for embedding in a matrix component. The matrix component can have a thermoplastic matrix. The matrix component can have polyetheretherketone (PEEK), polyphenylene sulfide (PPS), polysulfone (PSU), polyetherimide (PEI) and/or polytetrafluoroethene (PTFE). The matrix component can have a duroplastic matrix. The matrix component can be epoxy resin (EP), unsaturated polyester resin (UP), vinyl ester resin (VE), phenol formaldehyde resin (PF), diallyl phthalate resin (DAP), methacrylate resin (MMA), polyurethane (PUR) and/or amino resins such as melamine resin (MF/ MP) or urea resin (UF). The matrix component can include benzoxaines.

The fiber material is deposited on a storage area. The fiber material can be laid down in a draped manner. The draping can include reshaping the fibrous material and laying the fibrous material on the support surface. The draping can be used to match the material to the shelf. The draping can serve to represent predetermined fiber courses. During draping, the fiber material can be deformed, stretched and/or distorted at least in sections.

The storage area can be flat, at least in sections. The storage surface can be curved at least in sections. The storage area can be multiplied and/or at least in sections be spatially curved. The storage surface can be curved convexly and/or concavely, at least in sections. The shelf can be a surface of a mold. Fibrous material can already be arranged on the storage surface. The fiber material can be deposited on the storage surface and/or on a material already arranged on the storage surface.

The industrial robot can have a manipulator. The industrial robot can have an effector. The industrial robot can have an electrical control device. The control device can be used to control the industrial robot and/or the effector. The effector can have active modules for receiving, holding, draping and/or depositing the fiber material. The effector can have a camera device. The camera device can have a camera. The camera can be a digital camera. The camera device can have camera optics.

The fiber composite workpiece can be produced in a lamination process. The fiber composite workpiece can be manufactured in a resin injection process. The fiber composite workpiece can be produced in a vacuum infusion process. The fiber composite workpiece can be manufactured using a transfer molding process, also known as resin transfer molding (RTM). The fiber composite workpiece can be a vehicle component. The vehicle may be a land vehicle, automobile, aircraft, watercraft, or spacecraft.

The offline programming method can be a programming method in which the industrial robot is not required. The offline programming method can be performed offline on a computer, computer network, programmable controller, or other programmable device independent of the industrial robot. The offline programming method can be a textual programming method, a CAD-based programming method, a macro programming method or an acoustic programming method.

The measurement window can be a camera image area in which measurements can be carried out. The measurement window can correspond to the camera image area. The measurement window can be smaller than the camera image area. The laid fiber material can have an edge contour. The deposited fiber material can have a visible structure.

Pre-selecting may include including measurements. Pre-selecting may include including predetermined measurements. The pre-selection can include excluding measured values. The pre-selection can include excluding predetermined measured values.

The measured values can each have at least one variable that at least approximately represents a position, an orientation and/or fiber angle of the fiber material. The measured values can each have at least one variable that enables a distinction to be made between the fibrous material and a non-fibrous material. The non-fibrous material may be a shelf and/or other fibrous material. The measured values can in each case have at least one variable that enables fiber paths to be identified.

The comparison can be made using a model of a shelf. The comparison can be made using a model of the industrial robot. The comparison can be performed using a model of a camera setup. The model can be a computer-aided model. The model can be a CAD model.

A fibrous material area and a non-fibrous material area of the measurement window are determined. The fibrous material area can be continuous or can comprise several partial areas. The fibrous material area can be an area in which the fibrous material is at least predominantly visible. The non-fibrous material area can be continuous or can comprise several sub-areas. The non-fibrous material area can be an area in which at least predominantly different from the fibrous material is visible. In the non-fibrous material area, a shelf and/or other fibrous material can be seen at least predominantly.

The measured values are assigned to the fiber material area or the non-fiber material area. Measured values assigned to the fiber material area can be taken into account during testing. Measured values assigned to the non-fibrous material area are excluded from further consideration. Measured values assigned to the non-fibrous material area are excluded from further consideration before a real measured value recording is carried out. A real measured value recording can be an actual measured value recording using the industrial robot and a camera device.

The measurement window can be divided into measurement cells. Each of the measuring cells can be assigned to the fiber material area or the non-fiber material area. The measuring window can do little have at least one measuring cell. The measurement window can have several measurement cells. A maximum number of measurement cells of the measurement window can correspond to a resolution of the camera.

The measuring cells can each be assigned taking a threshold value into account. The threshold can be predetermined. The threshold can be adjustable.

Subsequently, measured values of a deposited fiber material can be recorded with the aid of a camera device. With the help of the camera device, real measured values of the deposited fiber material can be recorded. Real readings can be readings actually recorded using the camera setup.

The placement of the fiber material can then be checked taking into account the automatically preselected measured values. The measured values can be reselected. Fiber angles of the fiber material can be checked.

In summary and presented in other words, the invention thus results, among other things, in a method for sorting out invalid measured values.

The invalid measurement values can be sorted out using a combination of a CAD environment, an offline programming environment and data from a camera system which has, for example, a fiber angle sensor. Invalid measurement values can be defined in advance by automatically taking into account additional information from the measurement process on the one hand and the component geometry on the other. In this way, an automatic measurement value selection can be made even before complex evaluation is carried out. Boundary conditions for an area to be measured can be defined on the basis of a geometry that can exist within the CAD environment. A measurement window can be defined in the CAD environment using data from a camera lens. By positioning and orienting the camera system in the offline programming environment, it can be checked whether the measuring window is completely on a component geometry or not. If it is not or only partially on the component geometry, it can also be determined which areas would be invalid for a later evaluation and should not be considered further in the measurement and evaluation process.

Tools already used for automated measurement value generation and the camera optics can be combined. This additional information can be used to define areas that are outside of a component geometry. Measurement positions to be excluded can be defined before the actual measurement takes place. An evaluation can be automated since subsequent evaluation algorithms can already take into account which areas should not be taken into account. A lot of erroneous readings can be reduced in advance. Independence from form surfaces, backgrounds and other image-disturbing objects is increased by prior definition of measurement data to be evaluated. A measurement quality is also not decisive for the method, since the definition of the measurement ranges takes place before the measurement. This independence makes the method robust against disturbance variables. Depending on the camera system and data format, the process can be scaled to all sizes of components and measurement windows.

In particular, “may” denotes optional features of the invention. Accordingly, there is in each case an exemplary embodiment of the invention which has the respective feature or features.

With the invention, a test effort is reduced. A manual work share is reduced. Manufacturing quality and/or process reliability are/is increased. Manufacturing costs and/or a manufacturing time are/is reduced. A tolerance band can be reduced.

Exemplary embodiments of the invention are described in more detail below with reference to figures. Further features and advantages result from this description. Specific features of these exemplary embodiments can represent general features of the invention. Features of these exemplary embodiments that are associated with other features can also represent individual features of the invention.

• 1 einen Vergleich eines Messfensters und eines abgelegten Fasermaterials in einem Offline-Programmier-Verfahren und
• 2 ein Messfenster mit Messzellen.

They show schematically and by way of example:

• 1 a comparison of a measurement window and a deposited fiber material in an offline programming method and
• 2 a measuring window with measuring cells.

To produce a fiber composite workpiece, a ready-made fiber material is first placed and/or draped on a support surface of a mold. A position, an orientation and/or fiber angle of the laid and/or draped fiber material is then checked with the aid of an industrial robot and a camera device.

In order to reduce the testing effort, measured values are already automatically preselected in the offline programming process before a real test. To do this, as in 1 shown, compared a measurement window 100 and a deposited fiber material 102 in an offline programming method.

The mold with its storage area, the fiber material 102, the industrial robot and the camera device 104 with camera 106 and camera optics 108 are available in an offline programming environment.

In order to define an exact position of the mold, a basis is measured on the real mold and transferred to the offline programming environment. With the form tool defined in the offline programming environment, measuring points are generated on the form tool, so that the fiber material 102 is completely covered. A robot program is generated for these measuring points, in which a fiber angle, a position of the fiber angle and an orientation of the fiber angle are defined.

In the image section of the measurement window 100 there is a fiber material area 110 in which the measurement window 100 lies on the fiber material 102, and a non-fibrous material area 112 in which the measurement window 100 lies outside of the fiber material 102 on the mold or an underlying fiber material.

Boundary conditions of the camera device 104 and the information collected from the offline programming environment are used to check the area in which the measurement window 100 lies both on the fiber material 102 and on the mold or on a fiber material underneath. The procedure is as follows: 1. Information from the structure of the camera device and an orientation or position of the measuring device from the offline programming environment are used to calculate a projection onto a measuring surface. 2. Geometry information from a CAD system together with a position of the fiber material is used to define a valid measurement area on the measurement surface. 3. A calculation of the projection (step 1) with the valid measuring range (step 2) results in valid and invalid ranges for the respective measuring window.

The measurement window 100 can, as in 2 shown, be divided into measuring cells such as 114, 116, 118, 120. A number of measurement cells per measurement window determines a granularity of a measurement and can be adjustable. Information about the fibrous material area 110 and the non-fibrous material area 112 can be used to determine the percentage of fibrous material area 110 within each individual measuring cell 114, 116, 118, 120.

Depending on the selection of a threshold value for a permissibility of non-fibrous material area 112 in each measuring cell 114, 116, 118, 120, it is defined for each measuring window 100 which measuring cell 114, 116, 118, 120 is used for a subsequent evaluation.

A real measurement is then carried out with this information. In this case, a computer program recognizes the information from the offline programming environment and marks all measuring cells 114, 116, 118, 120 that have been defined as valid and can therefore be evaluated and which are not. At the in 2 In the measurement position shown, the measurement cells 114, 116, 118 partially contain non-fibrous material areas 112. However, the measurement cell 114 contains enough information to evaluate it, ie it is still used for a subsequent evaluation. The measuring cells 116, 118, on the other hand, are shown as not being able to be evaluated and are also stored as such. The measuring cells 120 each contain a complete fiber material area 110 and are used for a subsequent evaluation.

Reference List

100

measurement window

102

fiber material

104

camera setup

106

camera

108

camera optics

110

fiber material area

112

non-fibrous material area

114

measuring cell

116

measuring cell

118

measuring cell

120

measuring cell

Claims (8)

Method for checking a deposit of a fiber material using an industrial robot when manufacturing fiber composite workpieces, characterized in that initially in an offline programming environment in which a mold with its deposit area, a deposited fiber material (102), the industrial robot and a camera device ( 104) are available, by comparing a measurement window (100) and the deposited fiber material (102), a fiber material area (110) and a non-fibrous material area (112) of the measurement window (100) are determined, and measured values assigned to the non-fibrous material area (112) are excluded from further consideration before real recording of measured values is carried out, in order to automatically preselect measured values taking into account a comparison result. procedure after claim 1 , characterized in that the comparison is carried out using a model of the storage area, a model of the industrial robot and a model of the camera device (104). Method according to at least one of Claims 1 until 2 , characterized in that the measurement window (100) is divided into measurement cells (114, 116, 118, 120) and each of the measurement cells (114, 116, 118, 120) is assigned to the fibrous material area (110) or the non-fibrous material area (112). procedure after claim 3 , characterized in that the measuring cells (114, 116, 118, 120) are each assigned taking into account a threshold value. Method according to at least one of the preceding claims, characterized in that measured values of the deposited fiber material (102) are subsequently recorded with the aid of the camera device (104). Method according to at least one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the placement of the fiber material (102) is then checked taking into account the automatically preselected measured values. Method according to at least one of the preceding claims, characterized in that fiber angles of the fiber material (102) are checked. Computer program product comprising program code sections with which a method according to at least one of the preceding claims can be carried out when the computer program product is executed on a computer, a computer network, a programmable controller or another programmable device.

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