This article describes the image processing and tracking algorithms used in a mechanical hoe that accurately weeds between parallel rows of crops under variable outdoor illumination conditions.

Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, United States), the world‐known basic and applied research facility operated by the US Department of Energy, was tasked with reducing the cost to produce titanium aluminide sheet metal used to cover the outside of military aircraft and...

Recent National Manufacturing Week Show in Chicago highlighted many new innovations. Assembly system designers can choose from new low inertia drives, more compact linear and rotary motors, innovative robots and pneumatic actuators along with new modular structural components which were featured...

Product quality improved and finishing cost per saddlebag was reduced when robotic routing, drilling and sanding was instituted at Harley‐Davidson, an American motorcycle builder. Careful planning, and smart engineering all helped smooth the commissioning while not displacing workers.

Purpose – Top‐face control of weld penetration in TIG welding is required for fully automated systems to overcome variations in the welding process and fixturing systems. Design/methodology/approach – This paper presents a system based upon based on the real‐time vision measurement and...

Purpose – To demonstrate the feasibility of designing a versatile packaging machine for folding cartons of complex geometry and shapes. Design/methodology/approach – The research conducts study of cartons of different geometry and shapes classifying them in suitable types and operations that...

Purpose – For semiconductor and gene‐chip microarray fabrication, robots are widely used to handle workpieces. It is critical that robots can calibrate themselves regularly and estimate workpiece pose automatically. This paper proposes an industrial method for automatic robot calibration and...