Testing and Analysis of a Flexible Feeding System

Flexible parts feeding techniques have recently begun to gain industry acceptance. However, one barrier to effective flexible feeding solutions is a dearth of knowledge of the underlying dynamics involved in flexible part feeders. This paper presents the results of testing the CWRU flexible parts feeder. Data was collected for extended periods while feeding a variety of parts. The data was examined to determine throughput and statistical properties. In addition, tests were performed to examine other aspects of the system. A new metric for specifying the throughput of vision-based flexible feeders is presented, interesting system phenomena is examined, and a statistical analysis of the data is performed.