Human-robot collaboration (HRC) with vision inspection for PCB assembly

Abstract

Flexibility and speed in the development of new industrial machines are essential factors for the success of capital goods industries. When assembling a printed circuit board (PCB), since all the components are surface-mounted devices (SMD), the whole process is automatic. However, in many PCBs, it is necessary to place components that are not SMDs, called pin through-hole components (PTH), having to be inserted manually, which leads to delays in the production line. This work proposes and validates a prototype work cell based on a collaborative robot and vision systems whose objective is to insert these components in a completely autonomous or semi-autonomous way. Different tests were made to validate this work cell, showing the correct implementation and the possibility of replacing the human worker on this PCB assembly task.