On intelligent object sorting and assembly: versatile end-effector for robotized handling of electrical components

Abstract

In the ever-evolving landscape of industrial automation, versatile and ‘smart’ robotic solutions for sorting and assembly operations have become increasingly important. The diversity of product variants in terms of size, geometry, material and texture increases the complexity of the tooling needed for robot handling during assembly. To mitigate this challenge, this study presents a novel design of a versatile and cost-effective robot end-effector, to sort out products from a stack of multi-variant objects and assemble them with minimal re-grasping adjustments. The proposed smart adaptable gripper is equipped with multiple suction heads, each with independent triggering capabilities, enabling the end-effector to adapt to diverse parts’ geometry. A vision-based system has also been integrated to the gripping system enhancing it with perception capabilities. A two-step approach is employed to address the kitting to assembly problem from start to end utilising real-time pixel-wise grasp quality analysis in combination with gripper’s masks convolution for optimized grasping. The performance of the proposed framework in terms of the design functionality is evaluated in a case study involving the manipulation and assembly of electronics on a control panel derived from the elevators’ manufacturing industry.