Masahiko Sato

Development of hand-eye system with 3-D vision and microgripper and its application to assembling flexible wires

A hand-eye system with 3-D vision system and a microgripper has been developed for handling, forming and inserting flexible wires in electronic assembles. The hand-eye system performs its task based on visual sensor and force sensor data. The vision system uses a camera, a laser-multiplanar light projector, and a videorate image processor to measure the 3-D geometry of flexible wires within one robot cycle. The measurement accuracy is better than 1 mm perpendicular to the plane for a depth of 500 mm. The microgripper has three-axis sensors capable of detecting three kinds of forces; grasping, pulling, and pushing. The dynamic range of the grasping force is 0.5 to 60 gf. This system has been used for wire assembling in magnetic-disk slider manufacture. Using recovery function, the success ratios for measurement, grasping and upper insertion were 100%. The design concepts, the 3-D measurement, the hand-eye system, and the wire-assembling application are discussed.<<ETX>>