CAD-based design and analysis system for reconfigurable fixtures in robotic assembly

Fixturing is an important requirement for many manufacturing and assembly operations. If flexible manufacturing and assembly systems (FMS and FAS) are to be truly flexible, then the fixturing must also be flexible. This article presents a system for computer-aided design and analysis of reconfigurable fixtures in robotic assembly. The fixturing system employs a number of adjustable fixture modules that are set up, adjusted and changed automatically by the assembly robot without human intervention. The design of the fixture layout is performed interactively on a commercially available computer-aided design (CAD) package. The development of a dedicated software program to perform kinematic analysis of the fixture layout, using the information retrieved from the CAD database, is presented. A strategy to build various fixture layouts to locate and hold workpieces of various shapes and sizes using the same set of fixture modules is also presented.<>