Assist control for finishing process considering material removal rate

In high-variety low-volume manufacturing, parts are typically processed by handwork in order to minimize production cost and lead time. However, when a precise finishing process is required, handwork has problems of processing error and insufficient processing accuracy. To address these problems, we have developed a fixture robot with a parallel link system, and we propose assist control based on the material removal rate (MRR). We achieved high accuracy in the finishing process by controlling the pressing force and feed velocity to maintain constant MRR. The effectiveness of the proposed method is shown through an experiment involving user testing.