ARM Institute issues robotic inspection for casting and forging project call
The ARM Institute said its calls serve as a platform for collaboration and innovation for projects facing a lack of funding or engineering roadblocks. | Source: ARM Institute
The Advanced Robotics for Manufacturing, or ARM, Institute yesterday issued its latest project call. The Pittsburgh-based organization is looking for submissions around robotic inspection for casting and forging.
The ARM Institute said it is looking for projects to meet the specific needs of the manufacturing industry and the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD). Cast and forged components lie at the heart of critical commercial and defense systems, according to the institute. They provide a vital contribution to warfighter readiness for the U.S.
However, legacy platforms feature designs and processes that were largely conceived, defined, and stored on paper, noted the ARM Institute. A shortage of available workers exacerbates the challenge of producing low-volume but critical cast and forged components.
The ARM Institute has four stated goals. They include empowering U.S. workers to compete with lower-wage workers abroad; creating new jobs for national security and prosperity; lowering the technical, operational, and economic barriers to adopting robotics; and asserting U.S. leadership in advanced robotics for manufacturing.
In March, the organization opened a project call to support its effort to build a national repository for artificial intelligence-based manufacturing resources. It also added employer capabilities to RoboticsCareer.org.
The ARM Institute asserted that the lack of real, quality data to train AI models is a key barrier to adoption. To address this, the institute is working to define, collect, and validate data for machine learning and dataset generation.
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ARM Institute forging inspection project call has two goals
The ARM Institute said its latest project call centers on two objectives:
- Develop, integrate, and demonstrate an autonomous, scalable, dimensional, and thermal inspection system for high-mix, low-volume casting and/or forging processes
- Develop requirements to expand this capability from manual relocation to an autonomous mobile platform.
The developed system must demonstrate the following capabilities in a forging or foundry environment:
- Conducts rapid in-process scans of small, medium, and large parts under hot and ambient temperatures. It must be able to identify discrepancies for rework.
- Conducts detailed dimensional inspection of small, medium, and large parts at hot and ambient temperatures. It must be able to identify discrepancies for rework.
The submission deadline for full proposals is May 2, while the deadline for supporting documents is May 6. The ARM Institute plans to release final selections and begin subaward negotiations around May 8. The sub-award execution deadline is then on May 29, while the target project start date is on or before May 30.
The Institute said its project calls follow its mission to secure the nation’s future in manufacturing. The calls are open to the public, but only ARM Institute members can submit proposals.
