Precise Robotic Manipulation of Bulky Components

Increasing the flexibility of robots needs systems more capable in perceiving and interacting with the environment. A challenge is still to easy design the robotic system around the application, especially when the objects to be manipulated are bulky, and the relative positions between the robot and the objects to be manipulated are uncertain and high precision is required to successfully complete a task. In this paper a possible guideline to design a system capable to localize itself, identify a target, bulky, object and manipulate it, is presented. A method for tuning the impedance control parameters is shown, to keep interaction forces below dangerous values. The autonomous localization, grasping and assembly of a sidewall panel of an airplane is used as test. Experiments show that the success rate of completing a task increases, combining vision perception and force control, with respect to the single use of visual localization and position control.