抄録
To automate bead grinding tasks by industrial robots, compliant motion of a grinding tool is necessary. However, almost industrial robots are designed on the basis of position control schemes and are not appropriate for force control tasks. In order to solve the problem, this paper proposes an active tool holder which adjusts the tool position independently of robot motion. The developed active tool holder consists of a brushless DC motor, a ball screw and a parallel links mechanism. The translational motion of the grinding tool is realized by the compact mechanism. A simple stiffness controller using force sensor was designed and implemented in the active tool holder to achieve compliant motion of the tool. The developed system was applied to a simple bead grinding task. Experimental results show that the system enables the smooth bead grinding tasks using industrial robots.
