ASTM developing standards for assembly robots

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ASTM International’s robotics, automation, and autonomous systems committee (F45) is seeking participation in the development of proposed standards for testing and recording assembly capabilities of robot systems.

According to ASTM member Kenny Kimble, a mechanical engineer with the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the proposed standards (WK87213 and WK87214) will provide a reliable and repeatable means for testing the assembly capabilities of robot systems. The proposed standards also include a practice for recording the testing setup and configuration so that users can create and compare test results across the robotics community.

“The proposed standards will be most useful to robotics research labs, both academic and industry-based, that are regularly working with manufacturing assembly operations,” said Kimble. “Manufacturers can use the standards to benchmark robot performance as well as compare results to encourage innovation and solve manufacturing problems.”

Kimble notes that the task group is particularly looking for participation from the manufacturing industry in the development of these standards.

“Manufacturers deal directly with the current problems involved in robot assembly,” says Kimble. “They are also some of the most primary users of the already-available NIST assembly test boards referenced in the proposed standards.”

ASTM welcomes participation in the development of its standards.

The F45 committee has been busy in 2023. It started off the year by announcing work on a standard to evaluate an end effector’s grasp strength. ASTM said the WK83863 standard will better determine an end effector’s capabilities like limits of payload size and resistance to pull and push forces during operation.

It then launched a new legged robotics subcommittee that is focusing on test and performance standards. The legged robotics subcommittee has already proposed a new test method for disturbance rejection testing of legged robotics.

Aaron Prather, director of ASTM’s robotics & autonomous systems programs, was a guest on The Robot Report Podcast in February 2023. He discussed the current state of robotic standards at ASTM, specifically with Committee F45, and talked about some of the pitfalls that young robotics companies can trip over when attempting to sell their solutions to a large Fortune 500 company like FedEx, for which he served as senior technical advisor for many years. You can listen to that podcast episode below. The interview with Prather starts at the 19:20 mark.