Mobile robotic dynamic tracking for assembly tasks

Traditional industrial robots have been widely used in automotive manufacturing for nearly 30 years. However, there have been very few attempts to automate mobile robotic systems for final assembly operations, despite their potential for high flexibility and capability. This paper focuses on methods of tracking a dynamic moving vehicle that is similar to the vehicle body on a moving assembly line. We have investigated two tracking methods, one using a laser scanner and the other using a visual fiducial marker. We have also studied the tracking performance of a mobile base using the pure pursuit algorithm with low pass filtering. Experimental results are presented to illustrate the remaining main challenges in achieving robotic assembly on moving assembly lines.