A standard IRB (Industrial Robot) of today is not capable of positioning itsels to within better than 2-5mm relative to a given structure or object. In order to be able to perform high precision manufacturing, the requirement is less than 0,5mm. Existing solutions for 6DOF measurements to enhance the accuracy are not only expensive but also lacks flexibility. An affordable, accurate concept for IRB closed loop position feedback is presented here. This article proposes a method for using a camera together with fixed features to enhance the accuracy of an IRB in industrial manufacturing processes. The method is based on SLAM (Simultaneous Localization and Mapping), used to structure collected information about the features (mapping), and for the IRB to locate itself among the features (localization). The concept covers a scenario in which a set of features are placed within the working area. A camera is mounted on the IRB to observe (measure) the relative pose of the feature set. When the system is running observation of only one feature increases accuracy. However, in normal operation more features are observed which will increase accuracy further. The system setup is a standard IRB, ABB4400, on which a single camera with IR flash is mounted and used as sensor. The features are made out of reflectors that are placed in the production cell. The camera is also equipped with an IRfilter to improve the signal to noise ratio, simplifying image processing and accelerating execution. The execution time is critical since the goal is to sample at such rate that as to cover the dynamics of the robot. 

Face milling using different commercial tools and inserts at varying cutting speeds on a high strength aluminium alloy has been performed. The surface integrity of the machined samples has been investigated in terms of surface roughness, residual stresses, hardness and peak broadening from x-ray diffraction at grazing angle incidence. Some fatigue testing of the machined surfaces has been done. The cutting chips from the different machining parameters are investigated and compared to one another. The results show a strong influence of tool insert on surface roughness, residual stress, peak broadening, and hardness profile and fatigue properties. The influence of cutting speed on the surface integrity is much smaller. The cutting speed does however influence the size and shape of the cutting chips. There is also a general decrease in peak broadening from x-ray diffraction very near the machined surface after high cutting speeds. This could be explained by a higher local heating of the work piece at very high cutting speeds.

The thesis concludes the research work aimed at quality monitoring of parts associated with double twisted surfaces. Different CAD/CAM-based approaches and parameters for quality evaluation have been proposed.

The flexible research facility based on a co-ordinate measuring machine, CAD/CAM-system and CAD-based measuring/evaluation system has been made operational to analyse technology available today and to implement and test new routines. Links between the different components involving the local computer network have been set up in order to achieve efficient communication for monitoring.and control. The effects of integration have been studied and results are briefly summarized. The functionality of links has been experimentally verified by tests, reverse engineering of turbine blade, as an example.

Traditional quality monitoring methods based on nominal-actual comparison at single points makes it difficult to estimate the missing volume of the part, as well as changes in mass and mass points etc. Thus new quality evaluation methods considering the entire surface also including functionality-related aspects, are explored in the thesis.

A volumetric concept for shape error evaluation of parts with complex surfaces has been proposed, facilitating the three-dimensional understanding of the shape error. Changes in volume, mass, mass point etc. can be evaluated and re-machining guided to the error-affected areas. Based on the concept the Surface Error Factor has been introduced as a new parameter for shape error evaluation. The principles of surface and solid modelling are briefly discussed in the thesis. During experiments limitations related to the solid modelling technology influencing the performance of quality monitoring have been experienced.

The effect of different point distributions and CAD-modelling strategies when reconstructing the measured surfaces has been experimentally analysed by means of the CAD-based evaluation tool developed. Errors of 1 mm when dealing with measuring accuracy of 0.001 mm can be introduced by improper strategies. Error sources related to the measurement process are discussed in the thesis in order to verify the used approach of simulation as a method for exploring the accuracy and the performance of CAD modelling.

Approaches based on adaptive algorithms integrated with CAD for measurement and reconstruction of known as well as unknown surfaces are proposed with the intention of increasing the level of automation.

By cooperation with participating companies the feasibility of implementing the proposed concepts and of possible benefits have been analysed as well as the need for further development.

In recent years, Ecodesign has attracted increased attention from researchers. In this thesis, the term Ecodesign refers to the actions taken and activities carried out originating from the incorporation of environmental performance requirements in a product development project. Earlier Ecodesign research has primarily focused on the development of various tools for supporting practitioners. Only a few studies have focused on how the incorporation of environmental performance requirements affects development projects and the changes that a development organisation undergoes to become more environmentally conscious. The objective of this thesis is therefore to explore characteristics of product development projects originating from the incorporation of environmental performance requirements.

The empirical material has been collected from two in-depth case studies of product development projects in which new and complex business-to-business products were developed. The first case study addressed a project in which a telecommunications product was developed. The study occupied approximately 1 ½ years and was performed as a real-time, longitudinal study. The second case study was performed as an ex-post study and addressed a product development project in which a new power generating gas turbine was developed.

The analysis, which takes as its starting point a number of essential product development elements derived from the literature, revealed a number of differences between the projects. These differences seem largely to

be due to different levels of Ecodesign experience in the development organisations carrying out each project. When relating the development organisations' level of Ecodesign experience to a three-phase model of the

Ecodesign integration process presented in earlier research, it was found that one of the organisations fitted into the model, whereas the other did not. On the basis of this finding, a fourth Ecodesign integration phase was detected and denoted the Innovative Ecodesign phase. Complementing the existing model with this new phase, the so-called Extended Ecodesign Integration model was developed. The model shows that the focus in development projects carried out within development organisations in the first three phases of Ecodesign seems to be set on the environment and integration of Ecodesign in the development process. Development organisations that have reached the Innovative Ecodesign phase tend to direct efforts in the projects mainly

towards the application of new technology and technical problem solving in order to fulfil the environmental

performance requirements.