It is known in the art to provide an articulated robot arm capable of accurately positioning the end of the arm at a given location within a work cell. It is also known to provide robot arms with relatively limited computer control adapted primarily to positioning the end of the arm. These prior art robot arms are useful only with dedicated end-of-arm tooling capable of performing one task, for example, loading/unloading articles or welding. At present there exists a large gap between robot arm technology and tooling technology related to tasks that can be performed at the end of the robot arm.
The result of this technology gap has been the slowing of flexible automation implementation into manufacturing facilities. A further inhibiting factor in implementing robots onto the factory floor has been the lack of an end-of-arm tooling system that is interchangeable among many tools. Because this interchangeable feature has not been available, applications which are ideally suited for interchangeable tooling have not been considered for flexible automation. Instead, robot applications have been limited to using dedicated tooling that can perform only one task. Thus, there presently exists a need for a robot end-of-arm tooling system that allows the robot to perform multiple tasks within a single work station. To allow adaptibility to a variety of presently available robot arm systems, the tooling system should include its own control system in communication with and readily adaptable to controllers of presently existing robot arms.