Mounting a Screwdriver Onto a Screw Using Hybrid Control
Many peg-hole-insertion strategies have been developed for autonomous assembly tasks. Unfortunately, none of them appear applicable to the simple task of mounting a screwdriver, which has a rectangular blade and a thin tip, onto a screw whose small head significantly limits the work space. The mounting task has thus remained a challenging test for a robot's dexterity. In this work, we have developed a mounting strategy for a robotic arm that proceeds in two phases: a) screwdriver tip localization relative to the screw's slot via sliding and b) tip insertion into the slot via rotation. During the entire operation, the contact between the screwdriver's tip and the screw's head is maintained with a sequence of three hybrid controllers. Simulation based on physics engines has been carried out to demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed approach.
Committee: Yan-Bin Jia (major professor), Guang Song, and Juan Ren