SBIR Phase II: Methodology for Applying Haptic Robotics to Agile Manufacturing

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase-II research project addresses safety, user -interface, and performance challenges uncovered in Phase I while adapting a haptic robot to the manufacturing environment for medium-production-run paint spraying. Haptics is an exciting field, but industry adoption has been slow. Yet without haptics in applications like medium-run paint spraying, the two alternatives (fully automated or fully manual) are unappealing. Robots are prohibitively expensive to program for short runs, and fully manual operations endanger worker health. The technologically revolutionary haptics field has not yet revolutionized manufacturing. Some manufacturing tasks lack good alternatives, especially in medium run production, where one must choose between high-cost, time-consuming robot programming versus poor worker health. Physical robot-craftsperson interaction will benefit these middle applications, if safe and intuitive.