Method and system for fixtureless assembly of a vehicle platform

A method of assembling a vehicle platform, the method comprising:

• locating, by a robotic assembly system, a first component and a second component of the vehicle platform, wherein the robotic assembly system includes at least two robotic arms, each of the at least two robotic arms includes an end-effector and a force sensor configured to provide force feedback, and the at least two robotic arms includes a first robotic arm configured to locate the first component and a second robotic arm configured to locate the second component;
• capturing, by a vision system, images of one or more assembly frames at which the first component and the second component of the vehicle platform are to be located, wherein the vision system includes one or more multidimensional imaging devices;
• identifying, by a control system, one or more assembly features of the first component and the second component from the images from the vision system;
• operating, by the control system, the first robotic arm and the second robotic arm to orient the first component and the second component to respective nominal positions based on the images from the vision system and a component location model, wherein the component location model is configured to determine a positional offset for each of the first component and the second component, wherein the positional offsets are employed to move the first component and the second component to the respective nominal positions;
• and
• operating, by the control system, the first robotic arm and the second robotic arm to assemble the first component to the second component based on the force feedback from the force sensors.

A system for assembling a vehicle platform, the system comprising:

• a robotic assembly system including at least two robotic arms operable to locate components of the vehicle platform, wherein:
• each of the at least two robotic arms includes an end-effector and a force sensor configured to provide force feedback, and
• the at least two robotic arms includes a first robotic arm configured to locate a first component and a second robotic arm configured to locate the second component, wherein the components of the vehicle platform include the first component and the second component;
• a vision system including one or more multidimensional imaging devices configured to capture images of one or more assembly frames at which the components of the vehicle platform are to be located;
• and
• a control system configured to control the robotic assembly system to assemble the vehicle platform based on the images from the vision system, the force feedback from the at least two robotic arms, and a component location model:
• the control system includes a processor and a nontransitory computer-readable medium storing instructions that are executable by the processor, and
• the instructions include:
• identifying the assembly features of the first component and the second component from the images from the vision system;
• determining current positions of the first component and the second component based on the assembly features identified;
• calculating, by the component location model, positional offsets for the first component and the second component based on the current positions and nominal positions for the first component and the second component;
• operating the first robotic arm and the second robotic arm based on the positional offsets to provide the first component and the second component at respective nominal position;
• operating the first robotic arm and the second robotic arm to assemble the first component to the second component based on the force feedback;
• determining whether the force feedback from the force sensors is above a defined setpoint;
• and
• instructing the robotic assembly system to end assembly of the first component and the second component in response to the force feedback being above the defined setpoint.