Development of a Gripper for Assembly Process Automation Applicable to Commercial Industrial Robots

Abstract

The demand for industrial robots has spread across several markets, ranging from the automobile market to the electric and electronic markets, including various IT products. Consequently, the demand for assembly process automation using robots is gradually increasing. Control technology for assembly processes using robots can be classified into two categories. The first method involves force control-based robot control, wherein the robot is actively directed for controlling assembly reaction forces. In the second method, assembly implementation is performed by attaching a passive compliance mechanism to the robot. However, in both methods, implementation of the assembly process through a commercial industrial robot can be difficult. To address this issue, we developed a gripper that can implement the assembly process through a commercial industrial robots which are operated in position-control based robot control. Furthermore, the obtained results are summarized in this paper.