Senior Design Team Develops Robot for Automotive Industry
Wiring harnesses are essential for controlling the electrical components of an automobile and transmitting power to every part of the vehicle. The bundled sets of wires and cables are responsible for airbags, ABS brakes, climate control, and the engine. Their assembly is one of the most labor-intensive and complex aspects of manufacturing.
Being able to automate the process would help the auto industry with labor shortages, rising production volumes, cost efficiency, and quality control. An interdisciplinary senior design (ISD) team at the University of Tennessee was tasked with that challenge over the last year. The team worked with Nissan Group of North America to try and develop a robot that could fully automate the wiring harness process.
student showing off senior design
“This is a project that hasn’t been done before. There have been similar projects that have been attempted by different companies, but they’re not all the way complete,” said Dylan Woods, an electrical engineering major. “So, trying to work on a project where there’s no solution and we’re trying to basically develop something new has been a really great experience.”
The wiring fabrication process for automobiles includes seven steps and the UT senior design team focused on two main steps—terminal insertion and wire routing.
‘Basically, it’s making sure the end of the wire goes into the correct connector in the harness and then getting that through the correct path from point A to point B,” said Nathan LaCognata, a mechanical engineering major.
The team started by creating a software program that provides the robot with the information about where the connectors are located and where the wires need to go. Then, the program autogenerates a path for the robot.
Read the full article at tickle.utk.edu