Robotic polishing with force controlled end effector and multi-step path planning

Abstract

Surface polishing is a crucial final process of many manufactured parts. Presently, the process is heavily dependent on the skill of the trained workers and hence, is time consuming, expensive, error-prone and environmentally unfriendly. This paper presents a force controlled flexible robot polishing system utilizing a specially designed active end effector with a multi-step path planning. The main focus of the study is to control of the interaction between the tool and the polishing surface. The system is tested for polishing a watch bezel. In comparison to the manually polished parts, the robotic system performs better in terms of surface quality and productivity. With further improvement, the presented system will find many applications in the near future.