Test Environment for High-Performance Precision Assembly - Development and Preliminary Tests

摘要

This paper presents a test environment enabling the study of factors affecting on the success of a robotic precision assembly work cycle. The developed testing environment measures forces and torques occurring during the assembly, and uses a system based on machine vision to measure the repeatability of work piece positioning. The testing environment is capable of producing exactly known artificial positioning errors in four degrees-of-freedom to simulate errors in work-piece positioning accuracy. The testing environment also measures the total duration of the robot work cycle as well as the durations of all essential phases of the work cycle. The testing environment is best suited for light assembly operations and has measurement ranges of ±36 N and ±0.5 Nm and the vision system has a field-of-view mm. The latter part of this paper presents the results of the research done in order to find out how some selected factors affect the assembly forces of robotic assembly. These factors include work piece and process parameters such as work piece material and design (chamfered/straight), positioning tolerances, and robot insertion motion speed.