A novel mechatronics design of an electrochemical mechanical end-effector for robotic-based surface polishing

This paper presents a novel design of an end-effector and a process for automatic electrochemical mechanical polishing of conductive materials. The proposed end-effector employs three different actions, electrical, chemical and mechanical in a synergistic way to improve the material removal process. An industrial robot is used to hold the end-effector and a pump feeds an electrolyte to the end-effector. The end-effector circulates the electrolyte over the workpiece surface which acts as an anode. A DC voltage is applied between the anode and cathode to conduct electrochemical polishing. In addition, the end-effector keeps a rotational and linear motion of the polishing pad to conduct mechanical polishing and allows to control the contact force between the pad and the surface to be polished. The control strategy for the proposed system is presented and verified through simulation.