Automatic rubber attachment by a robot arm for cardboard punching mold fabrication

In this study, automation of rubber attachment task by a robot arm in cardboard punching mold fabrication factory is considered. This task is required to pick up a small rubber part and put it beside the blade accurately by the robot arm. We considered how to pick up the small rubber part, how to remove it from the mount, and how to put it beside the blade. About small rubber part picking, we used a suction hand with two suckers are used. About the part removing from the mount, we weakened the adhesive force by reducing the adhesion area of the bottom of the rubber. About the part putting beside the blade, we made a rubber part attachment sequence which first the rubber part is pressed against the blade, then pressed to the wooden board, prepared a guide table for accurate rubber parts positioning, and suitable conditions for the certain part attachment. The effectiveness of the proposed system, method and conditions is confirmed through experiments, and we found that the robot arm can execute this task with the almost same quality to the human worker.