An Analytical Approach to the Design of Compliant Hand for Assembly Operations.

Abstract

An analytical method to the design of compliant hand appropriate to given assembly operations is presented. Use of passive compliance devices in mating operations is effective in order to prevent excessive contact forces and to guide an assembled part to its goal location despite of positioning errors among the parts. Methods to design passive compliance devices are thus required. First, quasistatic equilibrium conditions are established based on the kinematic and the static analysis of mechanical contacts. Second, feasible candidates for the desired end-point compliance are calculated based on the equilibrium conditions. Next, the configurations and the spring constants of virtual springs consisting of the desired compliant hand are designed through decomposing stiffness matrices. Simulation of mating operations is then introduced in order to determine the magnitude of spring constants of virtual springs and to verify whether the derived compliant hand enables the mating operations successful or not. Finally, one numerical example is shown to illustrate the process of the design of compliant hands.