Robotic Deburring and Chamfering of Complex Geometries in High-Mix/low-volume Production Applications

Deburring and chamfering are two important manufacturing processes and are mostly performed manually by human operators, especially for parts with complex geometries. This paper presents a robotic deburring and chamfering system that can be used in high-mix/low-volume manufacturing applications. The developed system includes a robotic manipulator, force/torque sensor, pneumatic tools and tool changer, and pneumatic control components. Two Human Machine Interfaces (HMIs) have been designed for selecting target features on the CAD model and planning collision-free trajectories for deburring and chamfering. The first HMI is designed to work with the CAD models (CAD-HMI) for feature selection. Human operators can select any features on the CAD model and export selected features as tool paths for trajectory generation. Once the human operator mounts the gear into the work cell, the second HMI (main HMI) can be used to register the gear and plan collision-free trajectories for the desired operation. The control and operation of the robot and tools are also integrated into the main HMI. We demonstrated that the developed system is useful for complex industrial parts.