Precision finishing is skill-demanding for workers and its automation is demanded for quality control. Therefore, we developed a practical finishing robot system which enables to automate various finishing processes such as deburring, chamferling, and polishing. The features of the system are as follows. First, it integrates a robot arm, which has wide movable area to deal with workpieces with complicated shapes, and position/force hybrid control, which stabilizes the quality of the process by stabilizeing contact force between the various finishing tools attached to the robot arm. Second, the paths of the tool tip are generated according to CAD model of the workpiece by commercial CAM software to reduce teaching time of the robot arm. Third, it measures and compensates the positional error of the workpieces by contact measurement using force/torque sensor to enable robust and precise processing. The development of this system had started in 2010, and it was installed in a production line of gears of aero engines in 2013.
20th RSJ Technical Innovations Award in 2015.
FA Foundation Paper Award.
