3-D flexible fixturing using a multi-degree of freedom gripper for robotic fixtureless assembly

A novel grasping strategy and gripper for fixturing in 3D is presented for the robotic fixtureless assembly application. The goal of the strategy is to accurately immobilize a part in the presence of initial robot and part positioning errors. The grasping strategy expands a previously developed 2D theory into 3D and is implemented on two automotive parts using a multi-degree of freedom gripper. The gripper is able to fixture a variety of parts …