Sensorless manipulation using transverse vibrations of a plate

The existing industrial parts feeders move the parts through a sequence of mechanical lters that reject parts in unwanted orientations. In this paper we develop a new apparatus that uses a novel vibratory mechanism to systematically manipulate parts, by actively orienting and localizing them. These new automation designs promise great exibility, speed, and dexterity| we believe they may be employed to orient, singulate, sort, feed, and assemble parts. The idea is to generate and change dynamic modes for a plate by varying the applied frequency of oscillation. Depending on the node shapes of the plate for these frequencies, the position and orientation of the parts can be controlled. We develop an analysis of the underlying dynamics, and show that it can be used to predict the behavior of objects placed on the vibrating plate. Over time, the part may come to rest in a dynamic equilibrium state. By chaining together sequences of vector elds, the equilibrium states of a part in the eld may be cascaded to obtain a desired nal state. The resulting strategies require no sensing and enjoy eecient planning algorithms.