What is Autonomous Process Control in Advanced Robotic Machine Tending?

There are certain topics in advanced robotic machine tending that are critical to understand in order to achieve “lights out” manufacturing. 

In today’s post, I want to briefly cover one of the most critical for successful production robotic automation: Autonomous Process Control (APC).

APC enables robots to adjust processing autonomously based on real-time inspection data – correcting issues like tolerance drift – to maintain precision, reduce defects, and improve yields. 

Without process control for consistent quality when using robots, true “lights out” production is not practical or feasible. 

Autonomous Process Control is the critical condition that must be achieved to attain autonomous manufacturing using robots in production.

APC in advanced robotic machine tending involves a combination of robots, automated inspection equipment, and robotic production software. 

APC means robots autonomously adjust production processing based on results from automated inspections, testing, and other real-time data sources such as sensors.

For example, as CNC tool wear occurs tolerance drift can result in nonconformances being made. 

Flexxbotics robotic production software uses sophisticated statistical process control algorithms that track control limits and calculate offset increments in real-time. Then, the parameters adjustments are applied autonomously to the specific g-code offsets for defect avoidance.

This type of closed-loop enables proactive processing corrections, assuring consistently high-quality production output without human intervention.

By automating parameter adjustments in CNC production based on real-time inspection results, APC improves precision, reduces waste, and improves yields, particularly in industries with stringent regulatory compliance.

For further detail on APC you can download our paper on Autonomous Process Control using Robots and Automated Inspection in Manufacturing