Audi 2014 Annual Report Download - page 38

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Following the transition to mechanical
production at the end of the th centu-
ry and assembly line production in the
th century, automa tion rang in a new
era of production in the s.
Today, automation alone is no longer
able to meet the rising demands on
modern production. Within the last ten
years, the number of Audi models has
more than doubled to over  at present.
The number of individualization options
is immense : For the Audi A, there are
 variants, or more possibilities than
stars in our universe. At the same time,
the Audi Group’s quality claim will have
to be fulfi lled in the future at  produc-
tion sites from Ingolstadt to San José
Chiapa in Mexico. All of that increases
the complexity. This is where the tech-
nologies constituting Industry . come
into play.
Networked production systems can
manage complexity ; intelligent
machines can support the people.
Waltl and Neugebauer continue on their
tour. They walk through the body shop ;
robots purr in their cages. They swing
around, grab the heavy body parts and
make precise welds and bonds. This
could all look di erent in just a few years.
Waltl and Neugebauer move on to as-
sembly. It is unusually quiet, at least for
those who imagine car production to be
a loud and hectic process. The assembly
line has a cycle time of  seconds.
As if by magic, it transports the painted
bodies from work step to work step.
Line section  is located nearly at the
end of the gigantic hall. It is here that
it becomes clear how the cooperation
between humans and robots will look in
the future. This is where KR  SI works.
Its job : to identify the positions of the
unsorted parts, use suction to pick up a
part, hand over the part. What makes it
so special : The one-meter-tall robot
stands right next to its human colleague,
Stefan Schlamp, with no protective
cage. Waltl greets Schlamp with a hand-
shake. The three men talk. “Since he’s
been here,” says Schlamp (), with a nod
toward KR  SI, “I no longer have to
bend over to pull the radiator overfl ow
tanks from the deep crate. That saves
my back.”
Neugebauer is impressed. “Even if
machines are becoming more intelligent,
the focus is always on the person,”
emphasizes Waltl.
Hand in hand : In the future,
humans will be assisted directly in
their work by the robot KR 5 SI.
Robots previously were only found in
cages. Thanks to its safety sensors,
KR  SI can work directly with people.
The human sets the pace. The robot only
pulls a radiator overfl ow tank from the
crate and hands it over to its human col-
league when needed. It uses a camera
to determine how to pick up the unsort-
ed parts via suction. This mode of
working is known as the operating room
principle. The human performs the
value-added work that requires both the
sense of touch and experience. KR  SI
assists. A colleague of the same model
but equipped with a bonding attach-
ment has been in use since . It pre-
cisely applies the beads of adhesive to
a part of the wheel well. The employee
removes the wheel well from the fi xture
after bonding and installs it. If a human
gets too close to the robot while it is
moving, it reduces its working speed. It
comes to an immediate stop if touched.
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039WE CREATE PROGRESS
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