Force-responsive robotic assembly of transmission components

Abstract

Assembly tasks involving large position uncertainties are unsuitable for use of position-controlled robots. To automate such tasks, the assembly system must be responsive to contact forces. Issues in addressing force-responsive automated assembly include contact stability, the degree of force responsiveness required for success, the speed of a successful implementation, and the means to program a force-responsive system to perform a given assembly task. We examine these issues for robotic assembly in the context of automotive transmission components. We report on an impedance-based low-level algorithm and its interface to higher-level strategies that exhibits gentle, fast and reliable assembly of our example components.