機(jī)器人控制和裝配計(jì)劃相結(jié)合的精密機(jī)械手外文翻譯

1、COMBINATION OF ROBOT CONTROL AND ASSEMBLY PLANNING FOR A PRECISION MANIPULATOORAbstract This paper researches how to realize the automatic assembly operation on a two-finger precision manipulator. A multi-layer assembly support system is proposed. At the task-planning layer, based on the computer-ai

2、ded design (CAD) model, the assembly sequence is first generated, and the information necessary for skill decomposition is also derived. Then, the assembly sequence is decomposed into robot skills at the skill-decomposition layer. These generated skills are managed and executed at the robot control

3、layer. Experimental results show the feasibility and efficiency of the proposed system. Keywords Manipulator Assembly planning Skill decomposition Automated assembly1 IntroductionOwing to the micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) techniques, many products are becoming very small and complex, such

4、as microphones, micro-optical components, and microfluidic biomedical devices, which creates increasing needs for technologies and systems for the automated precision assembly of miniature parts. Many efforts aiming at semi-automated or automated assembly have been focused on microassembly technolog

5、ies. However, microassembly techniques of high flexibility, efficiency, and reliability still open to further research. Thispaper researches how to realize the automatic assembly operation on a two-finger micromanipulator. A multi-layer assembly support system is proposed. Automatic assembly is a co

6、mplex problem which may involve many different issues, such as task planning, assembly sequences generation, execution, and control, etc. It can be simply divided into two phases; the assembly planning and the robot control. At the assembly-planning phase, the information necessary for assembly oper

7、ations, such as the assembly sequence, is generated. At the robot control phase, the robot is driven based on the information generated at the assembly-planning phase, and the assembly operations are conducted. Skill primitives can work as the interface of assembly planning to robot control. Several

8、 robot systems based on skill primitives have been reported. The basic idea behind these systems is the robot programming. Robot movements are specified as skill primitives, based on which the assembly task is manually coded into programs. With the programs, the robot is controlled to fulfill assemb

9、ly tasks automatically.A skill-based micromanipulation system has been developed in the authors lab, and it can realize many micromanipulation operations. In the system, the assembly task is manually discomposed into skill sequences and compiled into a file. After importing the file into the system,

10、 the system can automatically execute the assembly task. This paper attempts to explore a user-friendly, and at the same time easy, sequence-generation method, to relieve the burden of manually programming the skillsequence.It is an effective method to determine the assembly sequence from geometric

11、computer-aided design (CAD) models. Many approaches have been proposed. This paper applies a simple approach to generate the assembly sequence. It is not involved with the low-level data structure of the CAD model, and can be realized with the application programming interface (API) functions that m

12、any commercial CAD software packages provide. In the proposed approach, a relations graph among different components is first constructed by analyzing the assembly model, and then, possible sequences are searched, based onthe graph. According to certain criterion, the optimal sequence is finally obt

13、ained. To decompose the assembly sequence into robot skill sequences, some works have been reported. In Nnaji et al.s work, the assembly task commands are expanded to more detailed commands, which can be seen as robot skills, according to a predefined format. The decomposition approach of Mosemann a

14、nd Wahl is based on the analysis of hyperarcs of AND/OR graphs representing the automatically generated assembly plans. This paper proposes a method to guide the skill decomposition. The assembly processes of parts are grouped into different phases, and parts are at different states. Specific workfl

15、ows push forward parts from one state to another state. Each workflow is associated with a skill generator. According to the different start state and target state of the workflow, the skill generator creates a series of skills that can promote the part to its target state.The hierarchy of the syste

16、m proposed here ,the assembly information on how to assemble a product is transferred to the robot through multiple layers. The top layer is for the assembly-task planning. The information needed for the task planning and skill generation are extracted from the CAD model and are saved in the databas

17、e. Based on the CAD model, the assembly task sequences are generated. At the skill-decomposition layer, tasks are decomposed into skill sequences. The generated skills are managed and executed at the robot control layer.2 Task planningSkills are not used directly at the assembly-planning phase. Inst

18、ead, the concept of a task is used. A task can fulfill a series of assembly operations, for example, from locating a part, through moving the part, to fixing it with another part. In other words, one task includes many functions that may be fulfilled by several different skills. A task is defined as

19、: T =（Base Part; Assembly Part; Operation） Base_Part and Assembly_Part are two parts that are assembled together. Base_Part is fixed on the worktable, while Assembly_Part is handled by robots end-effector and assembled onto the Base_Part. Operation describes how the Assembly_Part is assembled with t

20、he Base_Part; Operation Insertion_T, screw_T, align_T,.The structure of microparts is usually uncomplicated, and they can be modeled by the constructive solid geometry (CSG) method. Currently, many commercial CAD software packages can support 3D CSG modeling. The assembly model is represented as an

21、object that consists of two parts with certain assembly relations that define how the parts are to be assembled. In the CAD model, the relations are defined by geometric constraints. The geometric information cannot be used directly to guide the assembly operationwe have to derive the information ne

22、cessary for assembly operations from the CAD model. Through searching the assembly tree and geometric relations (mates relations) defined in the assemblys CAD model, we can generate a relation graph among parts, for example, In the graph, the nodes represent the parts. If nodes are connected, it mea

23、ns that there are assembly relations among these connected nodes (parts).2.1 Mating directionIn CSG, the relations of two parts, geometric constraints, are finally represented as relations between planes and lines, such as collinear, coplanar, tangential, perpendicular, etc. For example, a shaft is

24、assembled in a hole. The assembly relations between the two parts may consist of such two constraints as collinear between the centerline of shaft Lc_shaft and the centerline of hole Lc_hole and coplanar between the plane P_Shaft and the plane P_Hole. The mating direction is a key issue for an assem

25、bly operation. This paper applies the following approach to compute the possible mating direction based on the geometric constraints (the shaft-in-hole operation of Fig. 3 is taken as an example): 1. For a part in the relation graph, calculate its remaining degrees of freedom,also called degrees of

26、separation, of each geometric constraint. For the coplanar constraint, the remaining degrees of freedom are . For the collinear constraint, the remaining degrees of freedom are . and can also be represented as and . Here, 1 means that there is a degree of separation between the two parts. , and so,

27、the degree of freedom around the z axis will be ignored in the following steps. In the case that there is a loop in the relation graph, such as parts Part 5, Part 6, and Part 7 in Fig. 2, the loop has to be broken before the mating direction is calculated. Under the assumption that all parts in the

28、CAD model are fully constrained and not over-constrained, the following simple approach is adopted. For the part t in the loop, calculate the number of 1s in ; where is the remaining degrees of freedom of constraint k by part i. For example, in Fig. 2, given that the number of 1s in and is larger th

29、an and , respectively, then it can be regarded that the position of Part 7 is determined by constraints with both Part 5 and Part 6, while Part 5 and Part 6 can be fully constrained by constraints between Part 5 and Part 6.We can unite Part 5 and Part 6 as one node in the relation graph, also called

30、 a composite node, as shown in Fig. 2b. The composite node will be regarded as a single part, but it is obvious that the composite node implies an assembly sequence.2. Calculate mating directions for all nodes in the relation graph. Again, beginning at the state that the shaft and the hole are assem

31、bled, separate the part in one degree of separation by a certain distance (larger than the maximum tolerance), and then check if interference occurs. Separation in both x axis and y axis of R1 causes the interference between the shaft and the hole. Separation in the +z direction raises no interferen

32、ce. Then, select the +z direction as the mating direction, which is represented as a vector M measured in the coordinate system of theassembly. It should be noted that, in some cases, there may be several possible mating directions for a part. The condition for assembly operation in the mating direc

33、tion to be ended should be given. When contact occurs between parts in the mating direction at the assembled state, which can be checked simply with geometric constraints, the end condition is measured by force sensory information, whereas position information is used as an end condition.3. Calculat

34、e the grasping position. In this paper, parts are handled and manipulated with two separate probes, which will be discussed in the Sect. 4, and planes or edges are considered for grasping. In the case that there are several mating directions, the grasping planes are selected as G1G2.Gi, where Gi is

35、possible grasping plane/edge set for the ith mating direction when the part is at its free state. For example, in Fig. 4, the pair planes P1/P1, P2/P2, and P3/P3 can serve as possible grasping planes, and then the grasping planes are The approaching direction of the end-effector is selected as the n

36、ormal vector of the grasping planes. It is obvious that not all points on the grasping plane can be grasped. The following method is used to determine the grasping area. The end-effector, which is modeled as a cuboid, is first added in the CAD model, with the constraint of coplanar or tangential wit

37、h the grasping plane. Beginning at the edge that is far away from the Base_Part in the mating direction, move the end-effector in the mating direction along the grasping plane until the end-effector is fully in contact with the part, the grasping plane is fully in contact with the end-effector, or a

38、 collision occurs. Record the edge and the distance, both of which are measured in the parts coordinate system.4. Separate gradually the two parts along the mating direction, while checking interference in the other degrees of separation, until no interference occurs in all of the other degrees of s

39、eparation. There is obviously a separation distance that assures interference not to occur in every degree of separation. It is called the safe length in that direction. This length is used for the collision-free path calculation, which will be discussed in the following section.2.2 Assembly sequenc

40、eSome criteria can be used to search the optimal assembly sequence, such as the mechanical stability of subassemblies, the degree of parallel execution, types of fixtures, etc. But for microassembly, we should pay more attention to one of its most important features, the limited workspace, when sele

41、cting the assembly sequence. Microassembly operations are usually conducted and monitored under microscopy, and the workspace for microassembly is very small. The assembly sequence brings much influence on the assembly efficiency. For example, a simple assembly with three parts. In sequence a, part

42、A is first fixed onto part B. In the case that part C cannot be mounted in the workspace at the same time with component AB because of the small workspace, in order to assemble part C with AB, component AB has to be unmounted from the workspace. Then, component C is transported and fixed into the wo

43、rkspace. After that, component AB is transported back into the workspace again. In sequence b, there is no need to unmount any part. Sequence a is obviously inefficient and may cause much uncertainty. In other words, the greater the number of times of unmounting components required by an assembly se

44、quence, the more inefficient the assembly sequence. In this paper, due to the small -workspace feature of microassembly, the number of times necessary for the mounting of parts is selected as the search criteria to find the assembly sequence that has a few a number of times for the mounting of parts

45、 as possible.This paper proposes the following approach to search the assembly sequence. The relation graph of the assembly is used to search the optimal assembly sequence. Heuristic approaches are adopted in order to reduce the search times:1. Check nodes connected with more than two nodes. If the

46、mating directions of its connected nodes are different, mark them as inactive nodes, whereas mark the same mating directions as active mating direction.2. Select a node that is not an inactive node. Mark the current node as the base node (part). The first base part is fixed on the workspace with the

47、 mating direction upside (this is done in the CAD model). Compare the size (e.g., weight or volume) of the base part with its connected parts, which can be done easily by reading the bill of materials (BOM) of the assembly. If the base part is much smaller, then mark it as an inactive node.3. Select

48、 a node connected with the base node as an assembly node (part). Check the mating direction if the base node needs to be unmounted from the workspace. If needed, update a variable, say mount+. Reposition the component (note that there may be not only the base part in the workspace; some other parts

49、may have been assembled with the base part) in the workspace so that the mating direction is kept upside. 4. In the CAD model, move the assembly part to the base part in the possible mating direction, while checking if interference (collision) occurs. If interference occurs, mark the base node as an

50、 inactive node and go to step 2, whereas select the Operation type according to parts geometric features. In this step, an Obstacle Box is also computed. The box, which is modeled as a cuboid, includes all parts in the workspace. It is used to calculate the collision-free path to move the assembly p

51、art, which will be introduced in the following section. The Obstacle Box is described by a position vector and its width, height, and length.5. Record the assembly sequence with the Operation type, the mating direction, and the grasping position.6. If all nodes have been searched, then mark the firs

52、t base node as an inactive node and go to step 2. If not, select a node connected with the assembly node. Mark it as an assembly node, and the assembly node is updated as a base node. Check if there is one of the mating directions of the assembly node that is same as the mating direction of the form

53、er assembly node. If there is, use the former mating direction in the following steps. Go to step 3. After searching the entire graph, we may have several assembly sequences. Comparing the values of mount, the more efficient one can be selected. If not even one sequence is returned, then users may h

54、ave to select one manually. If there are N nodes in the relation graph of Fig. 2b, all of which are not classed as inactive node, and each node may have M mating directions, then it needs MN computations to find all assembly sequences. But because, usually, one part only has one mating direction, an

55、d there are some inactive nodes, the computation should be less than MN. It should be noted that, in the above computation, several coordinate systems are involved, such as the coordinates of the assembly sequence, the coordinates of the base part, and the coordinates of the assembly. The relations

56、among the coordinates are represented by a 44 transformation matrix, which is calculated based on the assembly CAD model when creating the relations graph. These matrixes are stored with all of the related parts in the database. They are also used in skill decomposition.3 Skill decomposition and exe

57、cution3.1 Definition of skill primitiveSkill primitives are the interface between the assembly planning and robot control. There have been some definitions on skill primitives. The basic difference among these definitions is the skills complexity and functions that one skill can fulfill. From the po

58、int of view of assembly planning, it is obviously better that one skill can fulfill more functions. However, the control of a skill with many functions may become complicated. In the paper, two separate probes, rather than a single probe or parallel jaw gripper, are used to manipulate the part. Even

59、 for the grasp operation, the control process is not easy. In addition, for example, moving a part may involve not only the manipulator but also the worktable. Therefore, to simplify the control process, skills defined in the paper do not include many functions. More importantly, the skills should be easily applied to various assembly tasks, that is, the set of skills should have generality to express specific tasks. There should not be overlap among ski