A 3-D modular gripper design tool

Modular_fixuring kits are sets of components used forjlexible, rapid construction ofjixtures. A modular vise is a parallel-jaw vise, each jaw of which is a modular jixture plate with a regular grid of precisely positioned holes. To fucture a part, one places pins in some of the holes so that when the vise is closed, the part is reliably located and completely constrained. The modular vise concept can be adapted easily to the design of modular parallel-jaw grippers for robots. By attaching a gridplate to each jaw of a parallel-jaw gripper; we gain the * ability to easily construct highrquality grasps for a wide variety ofpartsfrom a standaid set of hardware. Wallack and Canny [ I 61 developed an algorithm for planningplanargrasp conjigurations for the modular vise. In this paper; we expand this work to produce a 3-d fixturdgripper design tool. We describe several analyses we have added to the planar algorithm, including a 3-d grasp quality metric based on force information, 3-d geometric loading analysis, and inter-gripper interference analysis. Finally, we describe two applications of our code. One of these is an internal application at Sandia, while the other shows a potential use of our code for designing part of an agile assembly line.

[1]  Antonio Bicchi,et al.  On the Closure Properties of Robotic Grasping , 1995, Int. J. Robotics Res..

[2]  H. Harry Asada,et al.  Kinematic analysis of workpart fixturing for flexible assembly with automatically reconfigurable fixtures , 1985, IEEE J. Robotics Autom..

[3]  Warren R. DeVries,et al.  Locating Point Synthesis in Fixture Design , 1989 .

[4]  Jeffrey C. Trinkle.  A Quantitative Test For Form Closure Grasps , 1992, Proceedings of the IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems.

[5]  David Baraff,et al.  Determining Frictional Inconsistency for Rigid Bodies is NP-Complete , 1990 .

[6]  Michael A. Erdmann,et al.  On a Representation of Friction in Configuration Space , 1994, Int. J. Robotics Res..

[7]  Caroline Clarke Hayes.  Machining planning: a model of an expert level planning process , 1991 .

[8]  Edward C. De Meter,et al.  Restraint analysis of assembly work carriers , 1993 .

[9]  J. Trinkle,et al.  On Dynamic Multi‐Rigid‐Body Contact Problems with Coulomb Friction , 1995 .

[10]  John F. Canny,et al.  Planning for modular and hybrid fixtures , 1994, Proceedings of the 1994 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation.

[11]  Christos H. Papadimitriou,et al.  The Geometry of Grasping , 1990, Int. J. Robotics Res..

[12]  G. G. Stokes.  "J." , 1890, The New Yale Book of Quotations.

[13]  Randy C. Brost,et al.  Automatic Design of 3-D Fixtures and Assembly Pallets , 1996, Proceedings of IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation.

[14]  Van-Duc Nguyen,et al.  Constructing Stable Grasps , 1989, Int. J. Robotics Res..

[15]  Thomas C. Henderson,et al.  A Survey of General- Purpose Manipulation , 1989, Int. J. Robotics Res..

[16]  Jocelyne Pertin-Trocaz,et al.  Grasping: a state of the art , 1989 .

[17]  Kenneth Y. Goldberg,et al.  A complete algorithm for designing planar fixtures using modular components , 1996, IEEE Trans. Robotics Autom..

[18]  Matthew T. Mason,et al.  Robot Hands and the Mechanics of Manipulation , 1985 .

[19]  Paul K. Wright,et al.  Principles for part setup and workholding in automated manufacturing , 1988 .