A strategy for connector assembly using impedance control for industrial robots

A compliant motion as well as a stable contact should be guaranteed in the assembly process using industrial robots because two or more parts may physically contact during an assembly task. However, there are some uncertainties such as positioning errors between a manipulator and an object on the conveyor system. To cope with this problem, impedance control using a force/torque sensor was introduced to estimate the actual position of the task objects and to avoid an excessive contact force. In this paper, a connector assembly strategy by an industrial robot is proposed, which is to be used at the shop floor. The experimental setup resembling the actual assembly line was prepared, and impedance control based on a 6-asix force/torque sensor is implemented. The dimensions obtained from the CAD model of the LCD panel is primarily used to minimize the time consumption for the searching process, and the position uncertainties are corrected by measuring the contact position of the LCD panel. From a series of experiments, it is shown that connector assembly using an industrial robot can be conducted using the proposed strategy.