Design of Passive Compliance for Assembly Operations

Abstract

A systematic approach to the design of passive compliance for assembly operations is presented. Use of passive compliance in mating operations is effective in order to prevent excessive contact forces and to guide an assembled part to its goal location despite of positioning errors of parts. Elements of a compliance matrix must be determined adequately so that the operations can be performed successfull and quickly. However, no systematic methods to design the elements of a passive compliance matrix for individual mating operations have been established. In this paper, a new method to determine the elements of a passive compliance marix for the given mating operations is established. First, a mathematical model of passive compliance in assembly machines is described. Secondly, mechanical contacts among parts are analyzed. Next, combining the model of passive compliance and the analysis of mechanical contacts, equilibrium conditions for passive compliance adequate for each given operation are formulated. An algorithmic procedure to detemine the elements of passive compliance is then derived. Finally, a numerical example is presented to illustrate the design procedure of passive compliance.