Method and device for producing a connecting area on a production part

A method for producing a connection area on a work piece, the connection area being positioned precisely with respect to a reference area on the work piece, a robot-guided processing tool being used for shaping the connection area, the processing tool forming a tool/sensor combination with a sensor system having at least one sensor and being fixedly connected to the tool, the method comprising:

• moving the tool/sensor combination during during a positioning phase from a proximity position independent of a position of the work piece in a working space of a robot into a preliminary position, the tool/sensor combination in the preliminary position being oriented in a precisely positioned fashion with respect to a reference area of the tool, and
• guiding the tool/sensor combination, in a processing phase, from the preliminary position along a processing path under control of the robot, the connection area being formed on the work piece during the course of the processing path the connection,
• the moving step including running through an iterative closed-loop control process to move the tool/sensor combination into the preliminary position, the iterative closed-loop control process including:
• generating an actual measured value of the at least one sensor,
• comparing the actual measured value with a setpoint measured value generated within the scope of a setup phase,
• calculating a movement vector of the tool/sensor combination from a difference between the actual measured value and the setpoint measured value using a Jacobi matrix calculated within the scope of the setup phase, and
• displacing the tool/sensor combination using the movement vector.

A device for producing a connection area on a work piece, the device comprising:

• a processing tool guided using a robot;
• a sensor system fixedly connected to the processing tool and having at least one sensor;
• a control device for controlling the robot and the processing tool;
• an evaluation unit for evaluating measured values of the sensor system;
• at least one of the sensors being a metrically noncalibrated sensor.