Planning for Modular and Hybrid Fixtures

Fixturing encompasses the design and assembly of fixtures to locate and hold a workpiece during a manufacturing operation such as machining or assembly. We have implemented an automated design algorithm for a fixturing toolkit called the fixture vise; the fixture vise involves two fixture plates mounted on jaws of a vise and modular fixturing elements (pegs or flatted pegs). Generally, a fixture vise can handle appropriately sized prismatic workpieces in many different ways. The design algorithm runs in O(A) time, where A is the number of configurations achieving simultaneous contact between the modeled object and four fixture elements; since simultaneous contact is a necessary but not sufficient precondition for force closure, A provides an upper bound on the number of force closure fixture configurations. Key Words. Modular fixturing, Force closure.

• Type: Conference
• Year: 1994
• Where: ICRA
• Authors: Aaron S. Wallack, John F. Canny
• Keywords: Fixture Vise, Force Closure, ICRA 1994, Modular Fixturing, Robotics