Intelligent robotic assembly

It is normal when programming a robotic manipulator to provide the end effe ctor's orientation and position at the pick up and drop off locations. Addi tional sensory information and intelligence is needed, however, to detect t he presence of a part as well as its location if the assembly site cannot b e controlled precisely by employing expensive jigs or fixtures. This paper investigates, for this purpose, the application of solely an inexpensive la ser sensor mounted unobtrusively to the end effector of a CRS robot having customized hardware and open software. Data from the sensor is converted in to a single "Feature Value Vector" to recognize a part and accurately deter mine its location by using a neural network and back propagation training. The procedure's viability is tested by assembling a set of tightly meshing gears under poor ambient lighting. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All right s reserved.