PLA is one of the most widely used materials in additive technology, especially in the Fused Filament Fabrication method. However, its use is limited by its relatively low-temperature resistance. The glass transition temperature of PLA is around 60 °C. Some studies already performed on the anneal...

This article focuses on the integration of the Internet of Things (IoT) and the Internet of Robotic Things, representing a dynamic research area with significant potential for industrial applications. The Internet of Robotic Things (IoRT) integrates IoT technologies into robotic systems, enhancing their efficiency and autonomy. The article provides an overview of the technologies used in IoRT, including hardware components, communication technologies, and cloud services. It also explores IoRT applications in industries such as healthcare, agriculture, and more. The article discusses challenges and future research directions, including data security, energy efficiency, and ethical issues. The goal is to raise awareness of the importance of IoRT and demonstrate how this technology can bring significant benefits across various sectors.

This paper presents an approach to compensate for the effect of thermal expansion on the structure of an industrial robot and thus to reduce the repeatability difference of the robot in cold and warm conditions. In contrast to previous research in this area that deals with absolute accuracy, this article is focused on determining achievable repeatability. To unify and to increase the robot repeatability, the measurements with highly accurate sensors were performed under different conditions on an industrial robot ABB IRB1200, which was equipped with thermal sensors, mounted on a pre-defined position around joints. The performed measurements allowed to implement a temperature-based prediction model of the end effector positioning error. Subsequent tests have shown that the implemented model used for the error compensation proved to be highly effective. Using the methodology presented in this article, the impact of drift can be reduced by up to 89.9%. A robot upgraded with a compensation principle described in this article does not have to be warmed up as it works with the same low repeatability error in the entire range of the achievable temperatures.

Soft gripping, in which the gripper adapts to differently shaped objects, is in great demand for use in unknown or dynamically changing environments and is one of the main research subjects in soft robotics. Several systems have already been created, one of which is a passive shape-adaptable finger based on the FinRay effect. The geometric shape of this finger ensures that the finger wraps around the object it grips. FinRay fingers have been studied in several studies, which have changed the internal structure and examined how gripping force’s dependence on finger deformation changes. So far, however, no specific way has been determined to evaluate the proposed finger regarding its ability to wrap around the object. This work comes up with a new and simple method to evaluate the finger’s wrapping around the object mathematically. Based on this evaluation method, several different patterns of the internal structure of FinRay fingers were tested. The fingers were first tested in a simulation program, which simulated a steel roller indentation with a diameter of 20 mm in the middle of the finger’s contact surface. Based on the simulation results, selected types of structure were made by the Fused Filament Fabrication method from a flexible filament and tested on a real test rig to verify the results of the simulation and compare it with the real behaviour. According to the methodology used, the results show that the most suitable structure of the selected tested fingers from the point of view of wrapping the finger around the object is a structure without internal filling. Designers can simply use the new evaluation method to compare their designed finger variants and select the most suitable one according to the ability to wrap around the gripped object. They can also use graphs from this work’s results and determine the finger’s dimensions without internal filling according to the required forces and deflection.

The article describes the use of embedded systems in the Industrial Internet of Things and its benefits for industrial robots. For this purpose, the article presents a case study, which deals with an embedded system using an advanced microcontroller designed to be placed directly on the robot. The proposed system is being used to collect information about industrial robot parameters that impact its behavior and its long-term condition. The device measures the robot’s surroundings parameters and its vibrations while working. Besides that, it also has an enormous potential to collect other parameters such as air pollution or humidity. The collected data are stored on the cloud platform and processed and analysed. The embedded system proposed in this article is conceived to be small and mobile, as it is a wireless system that can be easily applied to any industrial robot.

Polylactic acid is one of the most used materials in Additive Manufacturing technologies, especially in Fused Filament Fabrication. Although its tensile strength is relatively good in comparison with other materials in the same price category, it is possible to increase it after printing by annea...