Kinematic analysis of fixturing systems for robot aided assembly

During an assembly operation it is necessary to locate an object precisely by means of point contact fixtures. These fixtures must secure the object during the assembly while also allowing easy access into and out of the fixturing system before and after the assembly without totally dismantling the entire fixturing system. The method of analyzing fixturing points of H. Asada and A.B. By (IEEE J. Robotics and Automation, vol.RA-1, no.2, p.86-94, 1985) is extended to develop formal mathematical techniques to determine the state of a workpart in the fixturing system. These techniques consist of performing an optimization to determine whether the part is fixed in the fixture or to determine the optimal directions in which to move the part into or out of the fixturing system. An example is given to illustrate the effectiveness of the methodology