Modeling and real-time compliance control of robotic automatic polishing for turbine blades

Traditional turbine blade polishing often requires manual operation and thus results in low efficiency and difficulty in ensuring quality. To address these challenges, a novel approach is proposed in this study for utilizing industrial robots in the constant force polishing of turbine blades. The proposed approach includes the incorporation of an advanced impedance control algorithm, where the contact force and motion speed of the robot are adjusted in real time based on the feedback of force and torque from a force sensor. In this paper, a novel impedance control algorithm aimed at achieving precise constant force polishing is presented. The algorithm utilizes the feedback of the end effector force and torque, which are measured by a force sensor, to adjust the robot's contact force and velocity. Additionally, the polishing trajectory on the workpiece surface is determined by employing a parallel sectioning method, cubic Bezier curve fitting, and coordinate system transformation. The proposed method provides a feasible approach for constant force polishing of complex-shaped workpieces. The experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed industrial robot-based constant force polishing method.