Alternative approaches to sequencing robot moves for PCB assembly

Abstract

The use of industrial robots for assembly application is on the increase. This is due in part to increasing popularity of automation and also the high productivity and quality level that can be achieved with machine assembly as against manual assembly. In this paper, a framework for the selection of the appropriate control scheme for assembling printed circuit boards is presented. The schemes pursue the reduction of the assembly time or cost. Machine assembly problems are categorized and a heuristic algorithm for solving each problem category is presented. Example problems are solved to illustrate the techniques, which can be easily generalized to handle any robotic assembly task outside the printed circuit board domain.