Automatic surface roughing with 3D machine vision and cooperative robot control

This paper presents an innovative and practical strategy for automated leather surface roughing, using structured light 3D machine vision for object profile perception, and NURBS interpolation for accurate and smooth trajectory generation. As high pressure grit blasting is used for roughing, considering the spacial constraints in the blasting chamber, an additional degree of freedom is introduced using a rotary table, which supports the workpiece. Cooperative control is implemented between a 6-DOF robot and the rotary table to minimize robot movements, while satisfying the requirements of variable velocity control, accurate trajectory tracking and orientation control. Experimental results of consistent roughing performance have shown the efficiency of the proposed method. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.