Design of a Test Rig for Tuning and Optimization of High Dynamics Servo-Mechanisms Employed in Manufacturing Automation

Abstract The Industry 4.0 framework is pushing the manufacturing systems towards a zero-defect production based on robot technologies. The increasing level of automation in the production lines is raising new challenges for designers that must face the latest requirements in terms of product quality and power consumption. Among the multitude of components of the industrial plants, Servo-Mechanisms (SMs) play a crucial role and govern important performance indices of both robots and automatic machines. During the execution of high dynamics tasks, the SMs performance is influenced by many factors, including motion law, acting load, temperature and degradation. The development of accurate models aiming at predicting and optimizing the SMs behavior may not be practicable without extensive experimental activities. Owing to these considerations, this work introduces a novel test rig for the accurate characterization of industrial SMs. The rig is designed by combining the advantages of the existing prototypes. It is equipped with high precision sensors and an active loading system that enable to test the SM in various working conditions. Also, the rig modularity facilitates the installation of newly commissioned components and the execution of static and dynamic experiments. The paper mainly focuses on the rig mechanical design and components selection criteria.