Algorithms for Fence Design.pdf

Algorithms for Fence Design Robert-Paul Berretty University of Utrecht, Utrecht, The Netherlands Ken Goldberg University of California at Berkeley, CA, USA Mark H. Overmars University of Utrecht, Utrecht, The Netherlands A. Frank van der Stappen University of Utrecht, Utrecht, The Netherlands Abstract A common task in automated manufacturing processes is to orient parts prior to assembly. We address sensorless orientation of a polygonal part on a conveyor belt by a sequence of stationary fences across this belt. Since fences can only push against the motion of the belt, it is a challenging problem to compute fence designs which orients a given part. In this paper, we give several polynomial-time, algorithms to compute fence designs which are optimal with respect to various criteria. We address both frictionless and frictional fences. We also compute modular fence designs in which the fence angles are restricted to a discrete set of angles instead of an interval. 1 Introduction Many automated manufacturing processes require parts to be oriented prior to assembly. A part feeder takes in a stream of identical parts in arbitrary orientations and outputs them in a uniform orientation. Part feeders often use data obtained from some kind of sensing device to accomplish their task. We consider the problem of sensorless orientation of parts, in which the initial pose of the part is assumed to be unknown. In sensorless manipulation, parts are positioned and/or oriented using passive mechanical compliance. The input is a description of the part shape and the output is a sequence of open-loop actions that moves a part from an unknown initial pose into a unique nal pose. Among the sensorless part feeders considered in literature are the parallel-jaw gripper [9, 13], a single pushing jaw [2, 14, 15, 17], a conveyor belt with a sequence of (stationary) fences placed along its sides [7, 18, 21], a conveyor belt with a single rotational fence (1JOC) [1], a tilting tray [12, 16], an