On contact models for assembly tasks: Experimental investigation beyond the peg-in-hole problem on the example of force-torque maps

Force guided assembly is attractive but the implementation is challenging when uncertainties are present. In these cases, contact models that guide the assembly process are attractive. This article elaborates the usage of static contact models, which map displacements to force-torque vectors of particular contact situations (force-torque map). This model, a map of discrete points, contains force and torque values that correspond to position errors. The inversion of this map, using forces and torques measured from an assembly attempt, yields correction movements in order to accomplish the assembly iteratively. A hypothesis stating the dependency of the model's quality on its injectivity is investigated. This aspect is studied thoroughly in so-called redundancy maps, which reveal regions of considerable ambiguity of the model. Experimental results are presented, which validate the hypothesis about the dependency of the convergence of the assembly process on the ambiguity of the initial position. In addition to the peg-in-hole problem, which has become a standard scenario to validate force guided assembly, the scope of this article also covers force guided assembly of more complex parts. Here, the analysis gives evidence to believe that it is unlikely that the implementation convergences acceptably, which is validated by experimental results.