Reposition and Alignment of Cable Connectors Using a Vibration Plate Manipulator for Wire Harness Assembly Tasks

In this study, we propose the use of a distribute manipulator for repositioning and alignment process of cable connectors to obtain the accurate pose of the connector. The accurate pose is critical for a successful mating process in wiring harness assembly tasks. Conventional actuators such as robotics grippers rely on active manipulations; for example, they uses belts and, rollers for the repositioning of the cables, and others such as parallel grippers used directly to grasping the connector. However, all these systems need a lot of many pieces and mechanisms to manipulate the cables or high accuracy control process for grasping the connector in a certain position, thus increasing the difficulty when the cables and connectors are smaller. Therefore, we present a vibrating plate to perform in-hand manipulation to reposition the cable and align the connector. We modeled and analyzed the relationship between the vibration frequency and the velocity of the cable. Furthermore, we experimentally show that the moving velocity of the cable is proportional to the vibration system frequency, and the proposed vibrating plate can reliably move the connector to the desired pose.