Högskolan i Skövde

The evolution of industrial automation has moved beyond fixed, repetitive tasks into the realm of intelligent systems capable of adapting to changing production environments. This shift is particularly evident in the transition from Industry 4.0, emphasizing digitalization and cyber-physical systems, to Industry 5.0, which focuses on human-centered, resilient, and sustainable production. At Volvo GTO, a specific assembly station involves the manual removal of protective caps from valve modules-a repetitive, ergonomically straining task that adds little value. Automating this task aligns with both ergonomic improvements and production efficiency goals. The objective of this study is to develop a vision-based robotic solution capable of detecting and removing protective caps with high flexibility and modularity, even in environments with varying geometries and orientations. The system integrates three major components: a YOLOv11-based vision module with 6DoF pose estimation, a custom-designed gripper tool, and a control system implemented in ROS 2 for robot manipulation and task execution.