Studies on Intelligent Robots Equipped with flexible Jigs and Tools

该项目的目标是建立使用柔性夹具和夹具进行先进操作的基础技术。1)开发可编程夹具和夹具，由机器人机械手重新配置。通过实验设计、制造和评估由可编程机器人装配的可重构夹具和夹具。还开发了柔性夹具和夹具的设计指南以及设备的编程工具。2)分析和综合使用柔性夹具和夹具的装配作业。开发了用于装配作业计划和夹具和夹具设计的分析工具。分析了由夹具和夹具接触约束和约束的装配零件的运动行为。装配过程被描述为导致零件和夹具之间的接触条件改变的一系列操作。然后，组装操作由状态网络表示，以可视化接触的过渡。利用状态网络表示法对任务规划和夹具设计问题进行了描述，并应用数学调度和路径搜索技术设计了任务规划和夹具设计问题的求解算法。3)可重构万能夹具分析与设计。4)计算机辅助任务规划系统的开发。针对具有可编程夹具和夹具的智能机器人，实现了上述技术和算法，并集成到CAD系统中。

The goal of the project is to establish fundamental techniques for advanced manipulation with use of flexible jigs and fixtures.1) Development of programmable jigs and fixtures reconfigured by a robotic manipulator.Reconfigurable jigs and fixtures that are assembled by a programmable robot have been designed, fabricated and evaluated through experiments. Guidelines for the design of the flexible jigs and fixtures and programming tools for the devices have been developed as well.2) Analysis and synthesis assembly operations using flexible jigs and fixtures.Analytic tools for the planning of assembly operations and the design of jigs and fixtures have been developed. Kinematic behavior of assembly parts that are constrained and quided by contacts with jigs and fixtures was analyzed. The assembly process was characterized as a sequence of operations that cause changes in contact conditions betwwn the part and the jig. Assembly operations were then represented by state networks in order to Visualize the transitions of contacts. Task planning and jig-fixture design problems were formulated by using the state network representation, and algorithms for solving the problems were devised by applying techniques of mathematical scheduling as well as path-finding techniques.3) Analysis and design of reconfigurable universal grippers.On the basis of the flexible jig-fixture concept, a universal robotic gripper with automatically reconfigurable fingers has been developed. An efficient algorithm for finding optimal fingertip locations was also developed.4) Development of a computer-aided task plaaning system.The above techniques and algorithms for intelligent robots with programmable jigs and fixtures have been implemented and integrated on a CAD system.