Techniques for CAD-informed robotic assembly

One or more non-transitory computer-readable media storing program instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to construct physical assemblies based on computer-aided design (CAD) assemblies by:

• performing a recursive disassembly of a CAD assembly to generate a set of sub-assemblies from the CAD assembly and one or more physical processes for coupling the sub-assemblies together via one or more joints, and to generate a plurality of CAD components from the set of sub-assemblies and one or more physical processes for coupling the CAD components included in the plurality of CAD components together via one or more joints;
• generating an assembly sequence based on the recursive disassembly of the CAD assembly, wherein the assembly sequence indicates an order for incorporating different physical components corresponding to the plurality of CAD components into a physical assembly and further specifies the one or more physical processes for coupling the different physical components together via the one or more joints;
• generating a set of component paths based on the CAD assembly and the assembly sequence, wherein each component path included in the set of component paths indicates a sequence of robot positions to traverse in order to incorporate a given physical component into the physical assembly;
• and
• generating a set of motion commands based on the assembly sequence and the set of component paths, wherein the set of motion commands is executed by a robot to construct the physical assembly, wherein the set of motion commands includes a plurality of lower-level commands associated with at least one of joint articulation angles or angular rates, and a plurality of higher-level commands that are implemented via one or more preset sequences of lower-level commands, and a first higher-level command included in the set of motion commands specifies switching an end-effector with which a first portion of the robot constructs the physical assembly from a first end-effector to a second end-effector.

A system, comprising:

• one or more memories storing a software application;
• and
• one or more processors that, when executing the software application, are configured to:
• perform a recursive disassembly of a CAD assembly to generate a set of sub-assemblies from the CAD assembly and one or more physical processes for coupling the sub-assemblies together via one or more joints, and to generate a plurality of CAD components from the set of sub-assemblies and one or more physical processes for coupling the CAD components included in the plurality of CAD components together via one or more joints;
• generate an assembly sequence based on the recursive disassembly of the CAD assembly, wherein the assembly sequence indicates an order for incorporating different physical components corresponding to the plurality of CAD components into a physical assembly and further specifies the one or more physical processes for coupling the different physical components together via the one or more joints,
• generate a set of component paths based on the CAD assembly and the assembly sequence, wherein each component path included in the set of component paths indicates a sequence of robot positions to traverse in order to incorporate a given physical component into the physical assembly, and
• generate a set of motion commands based on the assembly sequence and the set of component paths, wherein the set of motion commands is executed by a robot to construct the physical assembly, wherein the set of motion commands includes a plurality of lower-level commands associated with at least one of joint articulation angles or angular rates, and a plurality of higher-level commands that are implemented via one or more preset sequences of lower-level commands, and a first higher-level command included in the set of motion commands specifies switching an end-effector with which a first portion of the robot constructs the physical assembly from a first end-effector to a second end-effector.