Development of an Attachable Gripper for a Six-Degree-of-Freedom Robot

Flores C.; Vasquez O.; Lara M. · 2025 8th International Conference on Robotics, Control and Automation Engineering, RCAE 2025 (2025) · DOI: 10.1109/rcae66389.2025.11355159

Resumen

This study develops an attachable system designed to perform spot welding, which integrates with the six-degrees-of-freedom KUKA robot, referred to as the gripper. The spot welding method is highly demanded in the current market by industries such as automotive, railways, appliances, metal furniture, electronics, construction, and medical construction. In other words, it is present in emerging technological areas, with the global market for this particular welding method valued at US $378.1 million as of 2022, and it is estimated to grow to US $622.3 million by 2031. This means that the present research aims to offer a more optimized use of this technology in response to the future needs of this industry. The autonomous system to be developed will have the purpose of sending movement instructions to both the KUKA robot and the gripper to carry out the spot welding process. The programming and simulation of the present development will be done with the help of KUKA Sim software, which will serve as support to accurately calculate the movements and positions the robot must reproduce to precisely weld the metal plates to be joined. Another factor to consider will be the pressure exerted by the copper clamps, the time, and the exposure of the materials to electricity. The results will be measured based on the time saved per weld, the elimination of operators to reduce manual labor, and therefore, increasing the safety factor by reducing personnel exposure during welding.

Instituciones: Universidad Peruana de Ciencias Aplicadas