The cell production method, which facilitates high-product-mix and low-volume manufacturing, has been expanding into the mainstream, and demand has been growing for a robot similar in size to workers that can dexterously act as a multiskilled worker and handle heavy materials in a cell production line. We have developed a hydraulic double-arm robot that is equipped with hydraulic actuators for the arms, allowing it to handle heavy materials, and the TV800 vertical articulated robot arm consisting of electric actuators produced by Toshiba Machine Co., Ltd. For the wrists, allowing it to also achieve dexterous handling operations through visual feedback and compliance control. Also, we have developed a new fault detection system equipped with this robot. This system can detect faults of materials, not only by visual inspection, but also by weight inspection using the pressure of hydraulic cylinder.
