Fuzzy logic based ultrasonic gripper design for handling small parts

Abstract

The assembly of micro parts is associated with several demands. Most of these parts are highly sensitive to mechanical contact and to applied forces. As a consequence common handling tools proofed to be insufficient. Due to this fact new gripping principles are an urgent demand. Especially a new and upcoming contactless handling principle based on ultrasonic vibrations offers great potentials. This paper shows how the handling technology can be designed for different parts using an expert system, which consists of two subsystems, a neural network and a fuzzy logic model. The first one stores the characteristic process parameters of individual gripper designs and interpolates them for similar grippers. The second one uses the existing hypothesis and expert knowledge in order to estimate the part stability for each parameter combination. In this paper the implementation of the fuzzy logic model is introduced.