Analysis of Tool Accessibility in Fixture Setup Planning
Tool accessibility is a critical issue for generating a complete fixture setup plan to reduce production setup time. Previous fixture design systems rarely consider the assembly tool accessibility. Current methods of assembly tool accessibility analysis mainly depend on simulation-based or user-interactive approaches which rely on users’ judgment. This paper presents a new approach to tool accessibility analysis for fixture setup planning. The fixture workspace around a tool is represented by a newly defined global accessibility sphere with depth of a truncated half-line. The assembly tools are modeled as five articulated parts to fully describe the tool characteristics. Accessibility analysis is executed to verify assembly tools’ feasibility applied on a fastener. In particular, both tool motion and tool placement constraints during tool applications are integrated into the tool geometric reasoning. The example demonstrates the fast computing speed and intuitive simulation of several assembly tools in fixture setup planning.