AbstractWhen two robot arms execute coordinated motions in assembly, collision between the two end‐effectors cannot be avoided. The collision effects on the two coordinating robots include two aspects: abrupt velocity changes of the robot joints and impulsive forces exerting on the contact point as well as on robot joints. Since the direction of the impulsive force exerting on the contact point is related to the relative position and orientation of the two mating parts, the impulsive force can be used to detect the alignment errors of the two end‐effectors. Thus a new assembly method is proposed in this article. The new method uses impulsive information to adjust the position and orientation errors of the two robot arms in assembly, rather than employing a compliance mechanism. The advantage of the new method is that the jamming problem, which is usually associated with compliance methods, never takes place. To make the method practically useful, wrist force sensors are suggested to installed at the wrist of each robot. Dynamic relations between the sensed information and the impulsive force at the contact point are then established. The sensed information thus becomes useful in analyzing the alignment situation. Finally, practical cases are studied to illustrate the use of the new assembly met
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