Conceptual design and workspace analysis of reconfigurable fixturing robots for sheet metal assembly

Purpose - Reconfigurability of the assembly fixtures, which enables a set of sheet metal automotive parts to be produced on a single production line, is becoming crucial to maintaining competitiveness in the rapidly changing market. One of the key issues in reconfigurable fixture design is to identify the fixture configuration and make sure there is enough workspace for a family of parts. The purpose of this paper is to address this issue, through the design and analysis of two novel reconfigurable fixturing robots. Design/methodology/approach - Following an introduction, the application of the reconfigurable fixturing robot addressed in this paper is described; it is characterized by using parallel manipulator as programmable fixture elements. Kinematic design and reconfigurable design of the fixturing robot is presented based on screw theory and modularized design, respectively. Findings - The proposed reconfigurable fixturing robots can transform their configurations with 4 DoF (degrees-of-freedom), and have a continuous workspace for their application. Originality/value - Reconfigurability of the assembly fixtures is an important issue for automotive manufacturing, due to the highly competitive nature of this industry. The proposed reconfigurable fixturing robots can greatly facilitate the development of new models of vehicles.