A Collaborative Automated Cell to Enhance Digital Maturity in SMT Assembly Lines

This paper presents the experimental development and functional validation of SMT-CoCell, a collaborative automated cell designed for handling the Smart Card Connector ICA-697, a component widely used in Surface Mount Technology (SMT) lines for assembling printed circuit board assemblies (PCBAs) applied to point-of-sale (POS) systems. In the current manual process, operators remove sets of connectors from plastic trays and reposition them into feeding trays compatible with a Panasonic SMT mounting machine: an operation required due to the limited reach of the machine’s Cartesian robot. This manual activity is repetitive, time-consuming, and prone to variability.

The proposed solution introduces a hybrid collaborative work cell in which the operator supplies the system with trays from inventory and empty trays destined for the SMT machine, while a collaborative robotic manipulator automatically performs the pick-and-place operations of the ICA-697 connectors. A computer vision system is integrated to inspect the positioning of each connector in the destination tray, ensuring dimensional conformity and process quality prior to SMT assembly. The cell also includes automated tray flow control, guaranteeing proper orientation, synchronization, and compatibility with Panasonic SMT equipment.

Experimental results indicate that the proposed architecture can reduce the total cycle time of the tray exchange and manipulation process by up to 50% when compared to the manual operation, while improving positioning accuracy and repeatability. From a digital transformation perspective, the project contributes to increasing the digital maturity of the SMT line from Stage 1 (Computerization) to Stage 3 (Visibility), according to the ACATECH Industry 4.0 maturity model.