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Roll No:
(To be filled in by the candidate)

PSG COLLEGE OF TECHNOLOGY, COIMBATORE - 641 004

SEMESTER EXAMINATIONS, APRIL 2019

BE - PRODUCTION ENGINEERING Semester: 7

15P701 AUTOMATION AND ROBOTICS

Time: 3 Hours Maximum Marks: 100

INSTRUCTIONS:
1. Answer ALL questions. Each question carries 20 Marks.
2. Subdivision (a) carries 3 marks each, subdivision (b) carries 7 marks each and
subdivision (c) carries 10 marks each.

1. a) Identify any three situations in which manual labour is preferred over automation.
b) The average part produced in a certain batch manufacturing plant must be processed
sequentially through six machines on average. Twenty (20) new batches of parts are
launched each week. Average operation time = 6 min., average setup time = 5 hours,
average batch size = 25 parts, and average non-operation time per batch = 10
hr/machine. There are 18 machines in the plant working in parallel. Each of the
machines can be set up for any type of job processed in the plant. The plant operates
an average of 70 production hours per week. Scrap rate is negligible. Determine
manufacturing lead time for an average part, plant capacity and plant utilization. How
would you expect the non-operation time to be affected by the plant utilization?
c) Discuss the strategies that can be used for automation and process improvement.
2. a) A rotary worktable is driven by a Geneva mechanism with five slots. The driver
rotates at 48 rev/min. Determine (i) the cycle time, (ii) available process time, and (iii)
indexing time each cycle.
b) A 30-station transfer line has an ideal cycle time of 0.75 min, an average downtime of
6.0 min per line stop occurrence, and a station failure frequency of 0.01 for all
stations. A proposal has been submitted to locate a storage buffer between stations
15 and 16 to improve line efficiency. Identify the reasons for including a storage
buffer in a transfer line and determine: (i) the current line efficiency and production
rate, (ii) the maximum possible line efficiency and production rate that would result
from installing the storage buffer.
c) An automated assembly machine has four workstations. The first station presents the
base part, and the other three stations add parts to the base. The ideal cycle time for
the machine is 3 sec and the average downtime when a jam results from a defective
part is 1.5 min. The fraction defective rates (q) and probabilities that a defective part
will jam the station (m) are given in the table below. Quantities of 100,000 for each of
the bases, brackets, pins, and retainers are used to stock the assembly line for
operation. Determine (i) proportion of good product to total product coming off the
line, (ii) production rate of good product coming off the line, (iii) total number of final
assemblies produced, given the starting component quantities. Of the total, how
many are good product, and how many are products that contain at least one
defective component? (iv) Of the number of defective assemblies determined in
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above part (iii), how many will have defective base parts? How many will have
defective brackets? How many will have defective pins? How many will have
defective retainers?
Station Part identification q m
1 Base 0.01 1.0
2 Bracket 0.02 1.0
3 Pin 0.03 1.0
4 Retainer 0.04 0.5
3. a) What is the difference between off-line inspection and on-line inspection?
b) Under what circumstances is process monitoring a suitable alternative to actual
inspection of the quality characteristic of the part or product? Develop a schematic
model of the architecture for an online machining process monitoring of hard turning
process.
c) (i) List and discuss the important considerations for the management of AGV
systems.
(OR)
(ii) Five products are received by a warehouse according to the schedule given in the
following table.
Product Type Aggregate
Period
A B C D E Inventory Level
1 2000 2500 1500 1000 4100 11100
2 1500 3700 700 1500 900 8300
3 1500 3000 1200 1300 500 7500
4 1000 3500 3000 1100 700 9300
5 1900 1200 3300 1200 3000 10600
6 2000 500 600 700 900 4700
The dimensions of a unit load are 1.2 (width) * 1.3 (length) * 1.3 (height) m 3. The
storage space depth is up to a maximum of three-unit loads, desired system
height = 25 m, clearance for S/R machine run-out = 3 m, clearance for P/D area =
4.5 m, Aisle width = 2 m. Assumptions can be made wherever necessary for
clearance required.
1. Determine the size of a single storage space.
2. Determine the number of storage spaces that a storage and retrieval system
should be designed for considering dedicated and randomized storage
policies.
3. Suppose the single-command cycle system for the S/R machine is
recommended. The average cycle time is 2 min (An operation refers to either
storage or retrieval and both take approximately the same time). The desired
system throughput is 240 operations per hour. Determine the number of S/R
machines and the number of rows in the system.
4. Assuming the randomized storage policy, determine the following AS/RS
sizing parameters: Number of storage space per system height, Number of
bays, Bay Width, Rack length, Overall length of the system and Overall width
of the system.
4. a) List the factors that should be considered for gripper selection and design.

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b) Compare Mechanical, Vacuum, and Magnetic Grippers. Suggest a suitable Gripper

for the component shown in Figure 1. Justify your selection with the appropriate
reason.

Figure 1 Cast Iron Flange

c) Determine the forward and inverse kinematic equations of a 2 DOF RR configuration

robot. Also determine the values to which the angles of a manipulator must be set in
order to achieve the point (15, 12) in space, if the length of links 1 and 2 are 0.3 m
and 0.25 m respectively.
5. a) Trajectory planning for robots is easier to carry out in Cartesian coordinate system.
Comment on the statement.
b) A point P (7, 3, 1) T is attached to a frame Fnoa and is subjected to the following
transformations. Find the coordinates of the point relative to the reference frame at
the conclusion of transformations.
 Rotation of 90o about the z-axis,
 Followed by a rotation of 90o about the y-axis,
 Followed by a translation of [4, 3, 7].
c) For the 2-axis planar robot shown in Figure 2, assign the necessary coordinate
systems based on the D-H representation, fill out the parameters table, and derive
the forward kinematic equations of the robot.

Figure 2 2-Axis Planar Robot

/END/
FD/RL

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