A Model of the Robotic Assembly Process Based on a Force-Moment Sensor

Nowadays, although a great number of methods for the robotic assembly of cylindrical joints are known, most of them are based on the assumption that the shaft and the hole are well aligned before mating. In practice, if there is a misalignment of the position of the shaft and sleeve, parts jamming may occur. This article proposes an assembly robot control algorithm that controls the execution of high-precision joints based on the identification of the output signals of the force-torque sensor. An experimental setup with an ABB IRB-140 industrial robot is used to evaluate the effectiveness of the algorithm for assembling the shaft in sleeve with gaps of 0.01 mm, and 0.05 mm. During the experiments, the reduction of the assembly force was up to 3 times or more, and the assembly success rate was 100%. The experimental results show that the assembly strategy can successfully complete the precision peg-in-hole assembly and assist the robot in accurate assembly in industrial applications.