Robotic Finishing of Interior Regions of Geometrically Complex Parts

Abstract

Surface finishing is an important manufacturing process. Many parts with complex geometries require finishing of internal regions before they can be used. In small and medium volume productions most of the finishing tasks are non-repetitive in nature, and have to be performed manually. These finishing operations for parts with complex geometries can be quite labor intensive, and may pose risk to humans. We have developed a collaborative finishing system where human operators work on high level decision making, and the robot assistants carry out the labor intensive low level finishing tasks. The human operator guides the robotic system by transferring operator knowledge through a user interface. Our system generates instructions for the robots based on the user inputs and task requirements. We have also developed a planning algorithm that automatically computes the paths for the robots by using the CAD model of the part. This significantly reduces the robot programming time and improves the efficiency of the finishing system. If needed, the system seeks help from the human operator by generating notifications.