Chapter 7: Product Assembly and Design

Title: Progresses in assembly path planning

Author(s): Etienne Ferré, Jean-Paul Laumond, Gustavo Arechavaleta, Claudia Estevès

Address: KINEO C.A.M. Prologue, BP 27201 31672 Labège France | LAAS-CNRS 7 Avenue du Colonel Roche 31077 Toulouse France | LAAS-CNRS 7 Avenue du Colonel Roche 31077 Toulouse France | LAAS-CNRS 7 Avenue du Colonel Roche 31077 Toulouse France

Reference: International Conference on Product Lifecycle Management 2005 pp. 373 - 382

Abstract/Summary: Part assembly path planning consists in computing automatically a collision-free path for the part between a disassembled position and an assembled one. The part is first considered as a free-flying object. We have devised a probabilistic diffusion algorithm specially dedicated to that case. Then, we propose two approaches to add a virtual mannequin in the assembly process. The first one consists in planning a path for the part alone and then using inverse kinematics operators to check the feasibility with the mannequin. The second one considers the part grasped by the mannequin as a single system. The diffusion algorithm is then applied on the whole articulated system. While the first approach performs faster, the second one is able to solve more constrained and difficult cases. Both solutions are based on a same path planning library allowing the user to easily evaluate the proposed solutions. Automotive industrial case studies are reported.

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