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Simulated Mounting of a Flexible Wire for Automated Assembly of Vehicle Cabling Systems

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ROBOT2022: Fifth Iberian Robotics Conference (ROBOT 2022)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems ((LNNS,volume 589))

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Abstract

The manipulation of deformable objects poses a significant challenge for the automotive industry. In particular, the assembly of flexible cables and wire-harnesses in vehicles is still performed manually as there is yet to be a reliable and general solution for this problem. This paper presents a simple yet efficient motion planning algorithm to mount a flexible wire in an assembly jig, where the wire must traverse a set of forks in order. The algorithm uses a heuristic based on a set of control points to guide the wire’s movement. Various controlled assembly scenarios are built in simulation using MuJoCo, a physics engine that can emulate the dynamics of Deformable Linear Objects (DLO). Experimental results in simulation demonstrated that the amount and orientation of the forks has a large impact in the solution’s performance and highlighted several key ideas and challenges moving forward. Thus, this work serves as a stepping stone towards the development of more complete solutions, capable of assembling flexible items in vehicles.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    https://www.pacline.com/photos/photos-by-solution/assembly-line-conveyors/ (accessed on June 10, 2022)

  2. 2.

    https://pybullet.org/wordpress (accessed on June 10, 2022).

  3. 3.

    https://github.com/GoncaloLeao/Scientific-Research.

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Acknowledgments

This work was funded by National Funds through the Portuguese funding agency Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT), within the PhD studentship 2020.06923.BD, and by the Environmental Funds nr 01/C12-I01/2021 and nr 02/ C12-I01/2021, under the Portuguese Recovery and Resilience Plan.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Engineering, University of Porto (FEUP), 4200-465, Porto, Portugal

    Gonçalo Leão, Armando Sousa & David Dinis

  2. Institute for Systems and Computer Engineering, Technology and Science (INESC TEC), 4200-465, Porto, Portugal

    Gonçalo Leão, Armando Sousa & Germano Veiga

Authors
  1. Gonçalo Leão
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  2. Armando Sousa
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  3. David Dinis
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  4. Germano Veiga
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Gonçalo Leão .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Centro Universitario de la Defensa (CUD), Zaragoza, Spain

    Danilo Tardioli

  2. Grupo de Robótica, Universidad de León, León, Spain

    Vicente Matellán

  3. GRVC Robotics Lab, Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingeniería, Universidad de Sevilla, Sevilla, Spain

    Guillermo Heredia

  4. School of Engineering, Polytechnic Institute of Porto, Porto, Portugal

    Manuel F. Silva

  5. Institute of Systems and Robotics, University of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal

    Lino Marques

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Leão, G., Sousa, A., Dinis, D., Veiga, G. (2023). Simulated Mounting of a Flexible Wire for Automated Assembly of Vehicle Cabling Systems. In: Tardioli, D., Matellán, V., Heredia, G., Silva, M.F., Marques, L. (eds) ROBOT2022: Fifth Iberian Robotics Conference. ROBOT 2022. Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems, vol 589. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-21065-5_32

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