Performance Evaluation of Robot Polishing in Macro-Micro System Based Polishing Robot

Polishing is an important process performed in the finishing and repair processes of mechanical parts and is still a manual work of skilled workers. However, in addition to the time and cost required for manual polishing, there are also problems such as a decrease in the number of workers and health hazards due to dust generated during polishing. From these problems, the demand for automatic polishing is increasing at manufacturing sites. To automate polishing process, a macro-micro system based polishing robot which consists of a functional end-effector and industrial robot has been proposed. Regarding end effectors, mechanical design aiming for high rigidity and motion control methods for keeping the contact force constant is being researched. Meanwhile, the tool rotation speed of the spindle is independently controlled typically. Therefore, in this research, a functional polishing module capable of polishing force control and tool rotation control according to the tool feed rate is developed as the end effector. For the polishing automation, the macro-micro system based polishing robot is constructed attaching the polishing module to the industrial robot. From the viewpoint of Preston’s law, the effectiveness of the robot polishing is investigated through polishing experiments and measuring the shape of the polished surface.