145448 20260217205534.0 doi 10.1007/s00170-024-14591-8 sideral 140318 ART-2024-140318 eng Bianchi, Edoardo Universidad de Zaragoza (orcid)0000-0001-9162-9215 A novel underactuated smart surface for parts feeding and sorting 2024 Access copy available to the general public Unrestricted In material handling, numerous solutions have been proposed to enhance the flexibility and adaptability of transport systems. Among these solutions, smart surfaces stand out as one of the most interesting responses, utilizing an array of actuators for common feeding tasks. The current paper focuses on a novel system within this category, notable for its distinguishing factor of being underactuated. With this characteristic, the concept leads to a simplified cost-effective design and a not actively driven functioning, leveraging gravity or object own velocity to manipulate the material flow maintaining top class performances, as the sorting rate reaches 4000 pcs/h. Specifically, the article begins with an introduction of the concept design and its digital model, followed by a description of the experimental setup built to test the surface’s functionality and evaluate the predictions of the virtual counterpart. On top of that, a method to determine the essential parameters for the surface simulation is proposed and applied. As a result, the prototype successfully completed the three main intralogistic tasks experimented, i.e., sorting, slowing, and stopping of packages. Lastly, the digital model outcomes of the same operations were computed and compared with the measured results, demonstrating an accuracy of prediction with displacements and time errors below 7%. info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/EC/H2020/814225/EU/DIGItal MANufacturing Technologies for Zero-defect Industry 4.0 Production/DIGIMAN4.0 This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement No H2020 814225-DIGIMAN4.0 info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess by https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/deed.es 3.1 2024 AUTOMATION & CONTROL SYSTEMS 33 / 89 = 0.371 2024 Q2 T2 ENGINEERING, MANUFACTURING 36 / 71 = 0.507 2024 Q3 T2 0.706 2024 Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering 2024 Q1 Control and Systems Engineering 2024 Q2 Software 2024 Q2 Mechanical Engineering 2024 Q2 Computer Science Applications 2024 Q2 5.9 2024 info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion Fantoni, Gualtiero Brosed Dueso, Francisco Javier Universidad de Zaragoza (orcid)0000-0003-3080-9217 Yagüe-Fabra, José A. Universidad de Zaragoza (orcid)0000-0001-7152-4117 5002 515 Universidad de Zaragoza Dpto. Ingeniería Diseño Fabri. Área Ing. Procesos Fabricación 135, 3-4 (2024), 1221-1239 Int. j. adv. manuf. technol. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ADVANCED MANUFACTURING TECHNOLOGY 0268-3768 3079388 http://zaguan.unizar.es/record/145448/files/texto_completo.pdf Versión publicada 2445520 http://zaguan.unizar.es/record/145448/files/texto_completo.jpg?subformat=icon icon Versión publicada oai:zaguan.unizar.es:145448 articulos driver 2026-02-17-20:33:31 ARTICLE