A visual sensing system with multi-views for flexible parts assembly

Flexible parts can be deformed by the contact forces during assembly on the contrary to rigid parts and thus their successful assembly requires information about their deformation as well as a misalignment between mating parts. However, because of the nonlinear and complex relationship between parts deformation and the reaction forces during assembly, it is difficult to acquire all required information from only the reaction forces. In this paper, we propose a visual sensing system for measuring parts deformation in any direction and a misalignment for flexible parts assembly. It is composed of a camera and a series of mirrors, and it can overcome the self-occlusion when a hole is occluded by mating parts. The simulation results show that the system can be effectively used for measuring parts deformation and a misalignment, thereby drastically increasing the success rate of assembly operation.