Robot-based, sensitive mating of electrical connectors using automatically designed gripper jaws

Designing suitable gripper jaws is crucial for automating complex assembly tasks, such as mating electrical connectors. In previous work, we developed a methodology for these kinds of workpieces to generate gripper jaws automatically with parameterizable clearance, which is a proven way for robust grasping. Since there is uncertainty about the resulting in-hand pose, this paper investigates whether a sensitive joining strategy can compensate for this to ensure robust mating of electrical connectors. We conducted 600 grasp and about 450 mating tests using multiple high-voltage electrical connectors and clearances. In most experiments, sensitive joining strategies compensate for the in-hand pose uncertainty.