Overview of Computer Vision Techniques in Robotized Wire Harness Assembly: Current State and Future Opportunities
Paper in proceeding, 2023

Wire harnesses are essential hardware for electronic systems in modern automotive vehicles. With a shift in the automotive industry towards electrification and autonomous driving, more and more automotive electronics are responsible for energy transmission and safety-critical functions such as maneuvering, driver assistance, and safety system. This paradigm shift places more demand on automotive wire harnesses from the safety perspective and stresses the greater importance of high-quality wire harness assembly in vehicles. However, most of the current operations of wire harness assembly are still performed manually by skilled workers, and some of the manual processes are problematic in terms of quality control and ergonomics. There is also a persistent demand in the industry to increase competitiveness and gain market share. Hence, assuring assembly quality while improving ergonomics and optimizing labor costs is desired. Robotized assembly, accomplished by robots or in human-robot collaboration, is a key enabler for fulfilling the increasingly demanding quality and safety as it enables more replicable, transparent, and comprehensible processes than completely manual operations. However, robotized assembly of wire harnesses is challenging in practical environments due to the flexibility of the deformable objects, though many preliminary automation solutions have been proposed under simplified industrial configurations. Previous research efforts have proposed the use of computer vision technology to facilitate robotized automation of wire harness assembly, enabling the robots to better perceive and manipulate the flexible wire harness. This article presents an overview of computer vision technology proposed for robotized wire harness assembly and derives research gaps that require further study to facilitate a more practical robotized assembly of wire harnesses.

robotized assembly

computer vision

collaborative robot applications

deformable linear object

wire harness assembly

Author

Hao Wang

Chalmers, Industrial and Materials Science, Production Systems

Omkar Salunkhe

Chalmers, Industrial and Materials Science, Production Systems

Walter Quadrini

Polytechnic University of Milan

Dan Lämkull

Volvo

F. Ore

Scania CV AB

Björn Johansson

Chalmers, Industrial and Materials Science, Production Systems

Johan Stahre

Chalmers, Industrial and Materials Science, Production Systems

Procedia CIRP

22128271 (eISSN)

Vol. 120 1071-1076

56th CIRP International Conference on Manufacturing Systems, CIRP CMS 2023
Cape Town, South Africa,

EWASS Empowering Human Workers for Assembly of Wire Harnesses

VINNOVA (2022-01279), 2022-07-01 -- 2025-05-31.

Subject Categories

Mechanical Engineering

Electrical Engineering, Electronic Engineering, Information Engineering

DOI

10.1016/j.procir.2023.09.127

More information

Latest update

2/22/2024