[Course title]

ADVANCED SYSTEM
DESIGN PROJECT
AUTOMATIC POLISHING MACHINE
ABSTRACT
This proposal entails the details of the design of an automatic polishing machine for use
in the manufacture of artisanal writing instruments. The design entails details of how the
product is contacted to the polishing wheel and the systems in place that ensure that the
product is polished appropriately to the required standard and is not damaged in any
way in the process. The proposal also takes a look at the problems that the manual
polishing process had and some of the existing automatic polishing systems in use.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
ABSTRACT...................................................................................................................... 1
LIST OF FIGURES........................................................................................................... 2
1.0 INTRODUCTION...................................................................................................3
2.0 OVERALL CONCEPT...........................................................................................4
2.1 Design Considerations............................................................................................4
3.0 PROPOSAL DETAILS................................................................................................6
3.1 robotic arm.............................................................................................................. 6
3.2 claw grip.................................................................................................................7
3.3 polishing wheel.......................................................................................................7
3.4 machine vision system............................................................................................8
3.5 system control and user interface...........................................................................9
3.6 overview.................................................................................................................9
4.0 CONCLUSION........................................................................................................... 9
5.0 REFERENCES.........................................................................................................10
6.0 APPENDIX............................................................................................................... 11
ITEM 1: SYSTEM ALGORITHM.....................................................................................11
ITEM 2: 4 dEGREE OF FREEDOM ROBOTIC ARM SPEC SHEET..........................13

LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1: Example of an automatic polishing machine.....................................................4
Figure 2: 4 Degree of Freedom Robotic Arm....................................................................5
Figure 3: Claw with rubber lining......................................................................................5
Figure 4: A simple representation of the claw design.......................................................7
Figure 5: Machine Vision System for Specular Inspection................................................8
Figure 6: Machine Vision System for Specular Inspection................................................8
Figure 7: 4 DOF Robotic Arm Spec Sheet.....................................................................12

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1.0 INTRODUCTION
Artisanal writing instruments are used the world round to produce exquisite pieces of
written work that remind us of the beauty of the soul that resides within each of us.
These tools are a popular choice of calligraphers and poets as they allow them to
channel their deepest desires and creative outlooks flawlessly onto a sheet of paper. A
tool that produces art work of such immense awe and wonder should itself be a piece of
art.

During the manufacture of the artisanal writing instruments the instruments undergo
several processes, like swaging, brazing, soldering and engraving that disfigure the
surface and makes it look unseemly. This takes away the instruments ability to awe and
inspire its wielders to produce exceptional pieces of art. However, by polishing the
surface thoroughly, the instruments can be returned to their former form which was what
the craftsmen making the instrument had intended.

Polishing these instruments however is a very difficult task. The instruments are mostly
made of soft metals, such as silver therefore the polishing has to be done carefully such
that a proper balance is achieved between removing unwanted bumps, scratches and
discoloration from the surface and scraping off the solders and engravings that are part
of the design. Therefore, the current manual process of polishing is a huge risk. Only a
very experienced hand can judge the amount of pressure to be applied between the
polishing wheel and the product, the amount of time that will be required to remove the
surface imperfections and which of the polishing surfaces to use to produce the best
finish possible. This also means that the current manual polishing system is quite slow
and therefore slows down the rate of production of the workshop significantly.

A study was conducted on how to automate this polishing system such that the writing
instruments were, placed on the polishing wheel and removed automatically, polished
sufficiently such that no surface imperfections were left and were not over polished so
that all the solders and engravings were intact.

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2.0 OVERALL CONCEPT
For the purpose of this study it is assumed that the production is done in batches.
Therefore a instruments with similar design and manufacturing requirements are
grouped together and processed together. Therefore, when they reach the polishing
phase, they come in a batch of similar design instruments. They are then placed on a
rack manually by worker and taken off the rack, after the polishing process is complete
by a worker.

2.1 DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS

There already exist so many semi-automatic and fully automatic polishing machines
which are used in industries to polish brass plumbing fittings to car number plates. An
example of such a machine is one manufactured by Flexible Solutions[ CITATION www1
\l 1033 ]. the machine has a 6 Degree of Freedom robotic arm which picks up the
product and rubs it against a polishing wheel. 6 Degrees of Freedom of the robotic arm
allows it to rotate the product and ensure that all sides contact the polishing wheel,
giving a all round polished finish. However, after this polishing process is done, the
product is inspected visually by a worker, who determines whether more polishing is
required or not. This means that the process is still quite slow as after each product is
polished a visual inspection is carried out. This also means that there is still a lot of room
for error as the robotic arm rotates the product all round every time. Therefore, some
sections of the product could become over polished. However, we can still take ques
from this design and improve them to fit our goals.

Figure 1: Example of an automatic polishing machine

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The first aspect that you have to consider is how to automatically place the products
onto the polishing wheel. This, as we have seen above, can be achieved fairly easily by
making use of a robotic arm that picks up the product and contacts it onto a rotating
polishing machine. However, the writing instruments are quite small and delicate,
therefore the arm must first be able to locate them to pick them up and secondly it must
not damage the product when picking it up.

Figure 2: 4 Degree of Freedom Robotic

Arm
The second aspect of the automatic polishing machine to consider is that the system
should be able to detect the absence of a polishing mop on the polishing wheel and
when it does it should stop the entire process and alert the operator. It should also be
able to detect any misalignment of the polishing cloth on the polishing wheel. This is
important as it would be disastrous for the robotic arm to start polishing the product and
no polishing mop is present on the wheel. This will lead to damage to the product and
also the wheel.

Figure 3: Claw with rubber lining

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The third and final design consideration is that the system should be able to detect
surface imperfections on the product. Not only that but it should also be able to identify
the location of the imperfection and its severity. The system should then be able to
process this information and instruct the arm to polish the product appropriately. This is
the most important part of the system as it eliminates the need to constantly stop the
process for inspection and reduces the risk of over polishing, thus making the process a
lot quicker and safer and the system truly automatic.
Polishing involves the use of friction to remove the unnecessary surface imperfections.
Friction between two surfaces is bound to produce heat. Silver being a soft metal means
that it will deform fairly easily under relatively low temperatures. This means that the
surface temperature of the product has to be monitored closely in order to avoid this.

3.0 PROPOSAL DETAILS

After taking into consideration the above design requirements for the system, the
following components were chosen and integrated.

3.1 ROBOTIC ARM

The machine from Flexible Solutions made use of a 6 Degrees of Freedom robotic arm
as the medium through which the product was brought into contact with the polishing
wheel. However, considering that the artisanal writing instruments are mostly just
cylindrical in shape, there is no need for the arm to have so many degrees of freedom.
Therefore a 4 Degree of freedom robotic arm, which is cheaper and easier to program
and maintain is chosen instead. In my opinion an example of a good 4 Degrees of
Freedom robotic arm is the Lynxmotion AL5D 4DOF Robotic Arm SSC-32U Combo Kit
by FlowBotics Studio[ CITATION htt5 \l 1033 ].

3.2 CLAW GRIP

The claw grip is attached to and integrated with the robotic arm such that they both
operate flawlessly as a single entity. The claw grips job is to find the product and grip it
firmly, without damaging the product, during the polishing process.

The first part of its job is done using a dual camera positioning system. This entails two
cameras that are installed into the front of the jaws of the claw grips which provide a
visual signal that is fed in real-time to the computer. The computer uses an algorithm to
identify the presence of a product in the frame of the camera. It also identifies the
camera which has the product the most in its frame. This gives a notion of where the
product is, left or right. The computer then sends a signal to the robotic arm to move the
claw into position and grab the product and move it into position for polishing.
[ CITATION GND \l 1033 ]

The second part is achieved by simply lining the claw grips’ inner side with a soft rubber
material to provide a good friction surface to hold the product firmly and also to avoid
damaging the product.

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The claw grip is also equipped with a pressure sensor which detects the amount of
pressure with which the product is contacting the polishing wheel.

Figure 4: A simple representation of the claw design

3.3 POLISHING WHEEL

The polishing wheel consists of a motor that drives the wheel, the wheel itself and a
polishing mop. The motor is connected to a power source via the main computer, which
means that only when it receives a signal from the computer will it start or stop. The
wheel has a pressure sensor installed on it which measures the pressure between it and
the polishing mop. The pressure sensor is calibrated such as to send a signal to the
computer when the pressure reading falls under a certain value. This value is the
average pressure applied by the polishing cloth on the wheel. When the pressure
detected is below this value the sensor sends a signal to the computer which produces a
prompt and prevents the motor from starting.

3.4 MACHINE VISION SYSTEM

The machine vision system is in place so as to detect imperfections, their location and
their severity, on the product surface. The machine vision system has two main parts, a
source of light and a camera. The source of light, produces a beam of light directing it
onto the surface of the product. The beam of light will reflect off the product surface and
get captured by the camera. Now when the light hits the surface of the product, some
rays will hit the flat parts, which is the required state, some will hit bumps and some will
hit pits. When the light hits a bump or a pit its reflected angle will change where as when
it hits a flat part the reflected angle will be equal to the incidence angle. All these
reflected rays are captured by the camera, and the resulting image is sent to the
computer. The computer applies an algorithm to the image which identifies the bumps
and pits on the surface, their location and their depth and height. All this information is
used to send signals to the robotic arm on where to contact the product on the polishing
wheel, and with how much pressure. This entire process is carried out in real time,
meaning that there is no need to stop the process until the product is polished to a
satisfying degree[ CITATION RSE \l 1033 ].

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 Incorporated into the camera is a second thermal imaging sensor which measures the
surface temperature of the product. If the product starts to get too hot, a signal will be
sent to the motor to stop the polishing wheel. When it is detected that the product has
reached a suitable temperature again the motor is restarted and the process continues.

Figure 5: Machine Vision System for Specular Inspection

Figure 6: Machine Vision System for Specular Inspection

3.5 SYSTEM CONTROL AND USER INTERFACE

No system is complete without a user interface and a control system. The user interface
for the automatic polishing machine involves a computer monitor to display information
from the system and a keyboard to input the necessary commands into the system.

The system is controlled mainly from a central computer onto which all the programs and
algorithms for the various components are stored. The computer then uses these
programs and algorithms to integrate and operate all the components of the system.

3.6 OVERVIEW
The writing instruments are placed on a rack by a worker from which, using its dual
camera positioning system, the claw locates the product and the robotic arm swivels to
allow the claw to pick up the product. The arm then swivels into position next to the
polishing wheel. The polishing mop is detected on the polishing wheel and the motor is
started. The arm then contacts the product onto the rotating polishing wheel. The arm
initially contacts the wheel gently and then incrementally increases the contact pressure.
While this is happening the machine vision system identifies the surface imperfections,
their location and their degree. Using this information, the arm moves the product across
the polishing wheel with the necessary amount of pressure to eliminate the surface
imperfections without ruining the actual design. The thermal imaging sensor on the
camera also keeps in check the surface temperature of the product, preventing it from

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deforming under the high temperatures created by the friction between it and the
polishing wheel. Once it is determined by the specular inspection done by the machine
vision system that the surface is polished to the highest degree possible, the motor of
the polishing wheel stops and the product is placed back on the rack by the arm from
where it is picked by a worker.

4.0 CONCLUSION
In this document a detailed design of an automatic polishing machine to be used to
polish artisanal writing instruments is given. The manual polishing process was a slow
and problematic one which desperately required updating. Although this design attempts
to automate the entire process, improvements can still be made to the design. The main
one being the addition of a automatic loading and unloading mechanism. Currently the
products are placed on racks by workers from which the robotic arm picks them up. If
this process is automated as well the rate of production for the entire process will be
improved. A second are where improvements can be made is the adoption of a more
advanced positioning systems which has a lower error rate in detecting and locating the
products on the rack.

5.0 REFERENCES
Anon., n.d. [Online]
Available at: www.FlexibleAutomated.com

Anon., n.d. [Online]

Available at:
https://www.robotshop.com/letsmakerobots/files/userpics/u11554/new_gripper_1.jpg

Anon., n.d. [Online]

Available at:
https://cdn.instructables.com/FGU/4KUK/IL6XK64Z/FGU4KUKIL6XK64Z.LARGE.jpg

Anon., n.d. [Online]

Available at: https://www.robotshop.com/en/lynxmotion-al5df-kt-robotic-arm-flowbotics-
studio.html

Kak, G. D. a. A., n.d. Vision for mobile robot navigation: a survey, s.l.: s.n.

R. SEULIN, F. M. a. P. G., n.d. MACHINE VISION SYSTEM FOR SPECULAR

SURFACE INSPECTION: USE, s.l.: s.n.

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6.0 APPENDIX
ITEM 1: SYSTEM ALGORITHM

START
`
START MOTOR

DETECT POSITION OF PRODUCT CONTACTED

PRODUCT WITH WHEEL

PICK UP PRODUCT AND

IMAGE
MOVE INTO POSITION
FROM IMAGE
CAMERA FROM
CAMERA

PRESSURE
VALUE Y
FROM
SENSOR 1 ANY
IMPERFECTIONS
?

Y Y
IS
PRESSURE IS TEMP
WITHIN ACCEPTABLE
RANGE? ?

N STOP
N MOTOR

N
CREATE
PROMPT STOP
ON MOTOR
MONITOR

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STOP
Figure 7: 4 DOF Robotic Arm Spec Sheet

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ITEM 2: 4 DEGREE OF FREEDOM ROBOTIC ARM SPEC SHEET

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