Development of an Intelligent Power Module Inserter

Abstract

In this research, we developed a system to insert an intelligent power module (IPM) in a circuit board automatically. The pin row spacing of a target IPM is not reformed in advance and is not the same as the hole row spacing of the board. Hence, after the pin row of one side is inserted, the opposite side must be inserted while applying a force to the already inserted pin row in order to reform the spacing. To this end, a parallel link robot consisting of servo motors was developed. Also, visual feedback control using two webcams is utilized for the alignment and insertion. Moreover, by using the information obtained from a six-axis force sensor installed on the motion base of the robot, it is possible to confirm the grasping IPM and prevent the damage. In the experiment, the developed system was used to perform insertion 100 times, and a 100% success rate was achieved. The average insertion time was 29 seconds.