A new strategy for chamferless peg-hole assembly

One problem that arises during component assembly is that small error in relative position or angular position can produce large forces. These forces can prevent successful completion of the assembly (jamming) and can cause damage to the parts or the assembly machine/robot. To overcome these problems, a remote centre compliance (RCC) device is often used. The limitation of the RCC is that it can only be used for top-down (vertical) assembly, and also the mating parts must have a chamfer to facilitate the assembly operation. The approach presented here is a new strategy for chamferless peg-hole assembly from X/Y/Z directions. An investigation and a comparison between the vertical and horizontal assembly are presented followed by a simulation programme for testing the new strategy. The major conclusion is that both assembly methods have same assembly conditions (as long as we take into consideration the gravitational force), and that the coefficient of friction has to be as small as possible.