An easily reconfigurable robotic assembly system

In this paper, a flexible robotic assembly system with decentralized architecture is presented. The system is designed to achieve high reconfigurability so that it can adapt to changes in manufacturing environment; a new robot can be easily installed to the system and execute assembly tasks immediately, together with other devices. For easier reconfiguration, a semi-automated calibration method for positions of newly installed robots is integrated into the system. Our implementation of the assembly system consists of conventional manipulators and a belt conveyor. In the experiment, a new mobile manipulator was installed successfully and performed an assembly operation jointly with other existing manipulators.