Manipulation of sheet metal by dual manipulators based on finite element model

Control algorithms of dual manipulators handling a flexible sheet metal is discussed in this paper. We consider two types of problems. One is the bending of a sheet metal, which is treated by a two-dimensional model, and the other is the twisting of a sheet metal where three dimensional deformation should be considered. In both cases, we derive the relation between the static deformation of the sheet metal and the bending and twisting moments exerted on the flexible sheet metal based on a finite element model. The experimental results using two industrial robots illustrates the validity of the proposed methods.