New combination of programmable force fields for fast planar part manipulation with guaranteed unique configuration

Programmable force field, as a generalized supporting concept for universal part feeder, has been researched and developed for decades. A variety of fields has been proposed, most focused to the fewest possible part positions and orientations. However, there are more factors needed to be concerned in practical use, such as time consumed for part manipulation, or ability of the actual devices to create such a field, etc. This paper presents a new combination of programmable force fields, consisting of two elliptic fields and one newly-proposed parabolic field. By combining the advantages obtained from the characteristics of each field, this new combination of fields shows a great potential in part manipulation: with a unique part configuration at an equilibrium state, and faster than any known fields having the same unique configuration property.