Research at High Performance Manufacturing group
In our research group we have three research priorities: Laser joining of dissimilar materials, robotics, and lean/ digital manufacturing. The manufacturing industry needs are rapidly changing with the introduction of Industry 4.0. Therefore, the research group is working on a wide range of topics within the three research priorities for e.g. mobile robotics, Augmented Reality etc.
Research at a glance
Research priority areas
Our research group focuses on three main areas. Firstly, we explore laser joining of dissimilar materials, which involves welding or brazing material combinations that are typically difficult to bond thermally, such as copper and aluminum or steel and aluminum. Using laser beam sources, we heat the materials precisely to create the desired bond.
Secondly, we conduct robotics research to support the development of versatile and automated assembly plants. Our projects investigate the cooperation between humans and robots in assembly operations, using special 3D cameras and robot internal force sensors. We aim to optimise robot parameters, such as stiffness and damping, to enable stable assembly processes.
Lastly, we have a Lean Manufacturing Laboratory that includes a complete manual assembly line with 7 stations for logistics, rework, and quality control. We teach different lean management tools and the Value Stream Method, which aims to eliminate waste along the intra-company supply chain. Our goal is to optimize the use of resources along the complete value chain. Our laboratory is equipped with industrial robots from KUKA and Fanuc, which enables us to conduct research in an advanced setting.
With the recent developments in the manufacturing industry, we are currently working on projects with interdisciplinary focus to enable digital manufacturing or industry 4.0. Some of the research projects involve the usage of technologies such as Industrial Internet of Things, Augmented Reality, Mobile robotics, 5G etc.