Handling carbon fiber fabric in agile manufacturing cells

The paper addresses the design of agile cells for manufacturing low volume aircraft sub-assemblies and focuses on the problem of robust grasping and handling carbon fiber fabric. The difficulty of the manufacturing task is faced equipping the cell with two cooperative robots. Both robots use purposely developed. The paper presents in detail the adaptive end-effectors purposely developed like robotic hands following the approach of multi point grasping technology and the design of some alternative picking modules that can be used at the robotic hands fingertips. Key-Words: Flexible manufacturing cell, Dexterous handling, Soft material, Carbon fiber fabric, Robotics, Mechatronic design (6 10 words)