Modeling of part-mating strategies for automating assembly operations for robots

From the concept of designing for automation, a system modeled from simple part-mating is proposed for helping automate the fine motion control phase of assembly operations. The proposed system consists of three subsystems. The first subsystem is a part-mating model categorized from different mating geometric constraints of simple parts. The second subsystem is a coding system, named structured assembly coding system (SACS), that codes different part-mating tasks with different levels of geometrical constraints. From this coding system, specific part-mating types can be identified for different tasks of assembly operations. Conversely, constraint configuration for each part-mating task can also be generated from the proposed part-mating model. After constraint configurations are identified for an assembly operation, the third subsystem is to automate an assembly operation by deducing the compliance control strategies. The proposed system is demonstrated through a case study of pump assembly