Skill-based Programming of Micro-Assembly Robots

Abstract

As manufacturing shifts toward smaller batch sizes and increasing product customization, the demand for flexible and adaptive automation continues to grow. Skill-based programming offers a promising approach to speed up the setup of assembly processes by encapsulating machine capabilities into modular, reusable skills. While such concepts have been successfully applied in industrial robotics, their implementation in micro-assembly remains limited. This limitation arises from the lack of methodologies for encapsulating the handling of geometric tolerances and the specific feature alignment requirements within simple, parameterizable skills. This paper presents a practically validated methodology for skill-based micro-assembly, enabling flexible and parameterizable robot programming. Using one core micro-assembly skill as an example, the methodology is demonstrated and validated through the practical assembly of a sensor system. The results confirm the feasibility of the approach and outline remaining challenges on the path toward autonomous programming of micro-assembly machines.