Cooperative robotics equipment for spot welding in vehicle manufacturing

The paper presents design and operating characteristics of: An innovative rotoidal joint which, in addition to the robotic joint with a freedom degree with typical robotic accuracy and stiffness, can be rigidly locked to achieve a rigid structural connection such as to guarantee typical performance of a welding service equipment. A modular arm with two degrees of freedom implemented and one passive, with a perceptual system, actuators, electronic control and communication interfaces, which incorporates the innovative rotational joint. A gripping device and a support equipment which consists offour modular arms for handling and for variants welded of vehicles chassis component in production at Tofas. The work was co-funded by the European Commission through the co-operative project Autonomous machines for highly reconfigurable assembly operations of the future,.