The Roboglass 710-6 is a six axis robot designed specifically for gathering glass from pot furnaces. Development of the unit required designing a machine which could accurately mimic the movements of a human glass gatherer. At the same time, the unit had to be able to follow the variations in glass level in the pot as the day progresses. Using a laser level gauge on a pot furnace is impossible, so the designers had to develop another technique. Instead of measuring the glass level, during each gathering phase, the robot control system calculates the decrease in glass level in the furnace. This calculation requires the operator to enter the weight of glass gobs to be gathered, the density of the glass and the starting height of the glass surface. The robot can accommodate a total variation in glass level of as much as 400mm.
