Docking Methodology for Large-Sized Irregular Castings via Industrial Robot Manipulation

Large-sized irregular castings are critical components extensively employed in large-scale equipment manufacturing. Due to their substantial dimensions and complex geometries, the assembly and docking processes between different components present significant challenges. To address the docking problem between large-scale irregular castings, this study proposes a casting docking method based on relative pose, along with a modeling approach for irregular castings, and accomplishes the docking process through the control of an industrial robot. Firstly, the current poses of feature points on the docking surfaces are measured. Based on these measurements, the relative pose transformation relationship between the center point of the docking surface and the robot’s Tool Center Point (TCP) is established, thereby constructing the docking model. This model calculates the relative deviation between the current pose and the theoretical pose. Subsequently, the robot motion is controlled according to this deviation to achieve precise docking. Finally, a simulation environment was built using KUKA. Sim Pro with Office Lite to simulate the docking process of large-sized irregular castings. The results demonstrate that the relative pose-based docking method effectively accomplishes the docking task. This study provides an effective solution for the docking of large-sized irregular castings.