Design of Tactile Fixtures for Robotics and Manufacturing

This paper presents a theoretical framework for the design of tactile sensing fixtures for robotics and manufacturing. The framework presented uses group theory to analyze the symmetry of contact conditions on a fixture to evaluate a fixture design for referencing the sensor frame with respect to the fixture frame. Mechanical fixtures consisting of planar, spherical, and cylindrical surfaces are studied for their usefulness as part of referencing fixtures. The theory developed is used in guiding the design of a simple yet novel touch sensing fixture for part referencing and calibration in manufacturing and robotics.

[1]  Bahram Ravani,et al.  An overview of robot calibration , 1987, IEEE Journal on Robotics and Automation.

[2]  A. Slocum.  Kinematic couplings for precision fixturing—Part I: Formulation of design parameters , 1988 .

[3]  Tsukasa Ogasawara,et al.  Model-based integration of environment description and task execution , 1988 .

[4]  J. Hervé.  Analyse structurelle des mcanismes par groupe des dplacements , 1978 .

[5]  Benjamin W. Mooring,et al.  Aspects of robot repeatability , 1987, Robotica.

[6]  P. B. Yale.  Geometry and symmetry , 1969 .

[7]  K. Lau,et al.  Automatic laser tracking interferometer system for robot metrology , 1986 .

[8]  Carme Torras,et al.  A group-theoretic approach to the computation of symbolic part relations , 1988, IEEE J. Robotics Autom..

[9]  John Kenneth Salisbury,et al.  Contact Sensing from Force Measurements , 1990, Int. J. Robotics Res..

[10]  J. Michael McCarthy,et al.  Introduction to theoretical kinematics , 1990 .

[11]  Adolf Karger,et al.  Space kinematics and Lie groups , 1985 .

[12]  Yanxi Liu,et al.  A Group Theoretic Formalization of Surface Contact , 1994, Int. J. Robotics Res..

[13]  Bartholomew O. Nnaji.  Theory of automatic robot assembly and programming , 1992 .

[14]  R. Carter.  Lie Groups , 1970, Nature.

[15]  Daniel E. Whitney,et al.  Industrial Robot Forward Calibration Method and Results , 1986 .

[16]  John M. Hollerbach,et al.  A survey of kinematic calibration , 1989 .

[17]  Duc Truong Pham,et al.  On Machine Perception of the Relative Position of Two Objects Using Bilateral Tactile Sensing Systems , 1984 .

[18]  V. Varadarajan.  Lie groups, Lie algebras, and their representations , 1974 .

[19]  Neil A. Duffie,et al.  A sensor based technique for automated robot programming , 1984 .