A Reconfigurable Fixturing System for Robotic Assembly

Traditionally, fixtures have been required to be redesigned and remanufactured for every new product or manufacturing operation. Although this kind of fixturing practice might be economical for mass production, it would cause long lead times and high (fixture) manufacturing costs in small batch production. In today's flexible automation approach to small batch production, reconfigurable fixtures can play an important role in addressing these two concerns. The objective of this research was to develop a reconfigurable fixturing system for robotic assembly. The required features for such a system were in turn set as: modularity, automatic reconfigurability, sensory feedback controllability, and programmability. The modular fixture component designs which were developed include horizontal and vertical Iocators, a V-block, horizontal and vertical clamps, and a hole type baseplate on which these components can be reconfigured. All the components incorporate a standard sensing scheme. The main features of the developed fixturing system were verified through the manufacturing and testing of a prototype, which was interfaced to a personal computer.