Application and Perspective on Soft Technologies for Robotized Manufacturing

In the current context, traditional manufacturing solutions are no longer able to meet the increasingly challenging manufacturing requirements of large-scale workpieces, and robotized manufacturing solutions emerge as a pivotal means of addressing these challenges. However, several limitations persist, such as complex structures, low conformability, easy damage to the workpiece, and the difficulty in integrating the processing and detection. To solve the above issues, the concept of integrating soft technology into robotized manufacturing system is proposed. The integration of soft stiffness-variable technologies, flexible sensor technologies, and soft gripper technologies into domains of robotized processing, robotized measuring, robotized assembling will endow robotized systems with advantages of lightweight, compliance, non-destructiveness, non-impact, and integration. This provides robotized manufacturing system with novel solutions. Furthermore, considering the future development of robotized manufacturing, the significant application potential of soft technology is analyzed, aiming to further develop robotized manufacturing towards tri-co robots (coexisting-cooperative-cognitive robots).