An Approach Towards High-Precision Docking of the Mobile Robots for Industrial Purposes

The fourth industrial revolution caused a dynamic development of production capabilities. To manufacture faster and more efficiently, production lines are being equipped with numerous sensors based on IoT technology. Thus, the machines, and especially robots working in the factories, need to operate in an even more flexible way. This does not only apply to the interchangeability of their tasks but also requires their mobility between the different workstations. Not necessarily does it have to be realised with the linear tracks. The era of Industry 4.0 brings about a real need for the implementation of autonomous mobile robots in the manufacturing sector. Therefore, dedicated docking systems need to be developed to allow improved mobility of industrial manipulators and maintain a satisfactory level of their precision. The following paper constitutes a case study exploring the viability of the implementation of industrial robots, placed on a manual trolley and an autonomous mobile robot MiR 100, for automotive training purposes. A detailed description of the design-and-test iteration process is presented herein, followed by results obtained from a real-life validation.