Industrial Cabling in Constrained Environments: a Practical Approach and Current Challenges
Tanureza Jaya, Benjamin Michalak, Marcel Radke, Kevin Haninger
TL;DR
This work tackles the automation of industrial cabling in constrained spaces by introducing specialized gripper designs and an orientation-correction mechanism, enabling a near end-to-end automated workflow for FASTON connectors and partial automation for industrial plugs. The approach relies on mostly position control, with a contact-based insertion strategy for high-tolerance FASTON joints and a geometry-aware gripper system using a Scott-Russell linkage to handle multi-wire plugs. Experiments validate robust plug insertion and cable routing for FASTON, while highlighting routing and workspace geometry as primary bottlenecks, particularly for the industrial plug. The study offers concrete design recommendations and identifies key limitations to guide future improvements in automated cabling and product design for enhanced production integration.
Abstract
Cabling tasks (pulling, clipping, and plug insertion) are today mostly manual work, limiting the cost-effectiveness of electrification. Feasibility for the robotic grasping and insertion of plugs, as well as the manipulation of cables, have been shown in research settings. However, in many industrial tasks the complete process from picking, insertion, routing, and validation must be solved with one system. This often means the cable must be directly manipulated for routing, and the plug must be manipulated for insertion, often in cluttered environments with tight space constraints. Here we introduce an analysis of the complete industrial cabling tasks and demonstrate a solution from grasp, plug insertion, clipping, and final plug insertion. Industrial requirements are summarized, considering the space limitations, tolerances, and possible ways that the cabling process can be integrated into the production process. This paper proposes gripper designs and general robotic assembly methods for the widely used FASTON and a cubical industrial connector. The proposed methods cover the cable gripping, handling, routing, and inserting processes of the connector. Customized grippers are designed to ensure the reliable gripping of the plugs and the pulling and manipulation of the cable segments. A passive component to correct the cable orientation is proposed, allowing the robot to re-grip the plug before insertion. In general, the proposed method can perform cable assembly with mere position control, foregoing complex control approaches. This solution is demonstrated with an industrial product with realistic space requirements and tolerances, identifying difficult aspects of current cabling scenarios and potential to improve the automation-friendliness in the product design.