Flexible robotic strategy for the assembly of ring-shaped elastic objects

This paper addresses the challenge of the robotized insertion of ring-shaped elastic objects into parts' outer grooves, which is a key operation in several industrial processes. We propose a novel flexible strategy to insert ring-shaped elastic objects of different sizes and stiffnesses, exploiting a generic robot and a simple - yet effective - fixture. Despite the overall complexity of the procedure is entirely poured on the mentioned fixture, its simplicity of realization and implementation allows to equip the robot with a generic gripper, without the use of any additional sensor. The effectiveness of the proposed strategy is assessed via experimental tests, proving the efficiency and flexibility in the insertion of different ring-shaped elastic objects. (C) 2022 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.