Driven by the “double carbon” goal, China’s new energy vehicle industry is experiencing explosive growth.
However, the problems faced by automated production lines are still prominent – equipment damage caused by collisions and assembly deviations caused by insufficient tooling positioning accuracy, which have become “stumbling blocks” restricting the production capacity of the new energy industry.
Faced with the above challenges, Blue Point Touch, a leading domestic robotic force sensor technology company, has launched in-depth cooperation with Huayan Robot, a leading collaborative robot company.
By integrating Blue Dot Touch’s large-range six-dimensional force sensor and tension pressure sensor into Huayan’s collaborative robot automated production line solution, the two parties have successfully created a flexible intelligent manufacturing solution for customers in the new energy industry that combines safety capabilities and “micron-level” assembly accuracy.
Six-dimensional force sensors equip collaborative robots with “force-sensing nerves”
In automated production lines, collaborative robots undertake key tasks such as material handling, parts assembly, and inspection and scanning.
However, components such as new energy vehicle battery packs are of high value and the production line space is densely laid out. The risk of accidental collision between the robotic arm and peripheral equipment is always there.
Traditional collision detection solutions rely on current loop or joint torque estimation, which have limited sensitivity and often cause substantial damage to the equipment when a collision occurs.
Huayan Robot integrates a blue-point touch large-range six-dimensional force sensor at the end of its collaborative robot to achieve precise collision sensing in the true sense.
The Blue Dot Touch universal series six-dimensional force sensor adopts multi-axis synchronous calibration, algorithm decoupling and other technologies, which can simultaneously and accurately sense the force component and torque component around the axis of the end of the robotic arm in the three axes of X/Y/Z, providing all-round high-precision mechanical data feedback for the equipment.
The sensor has an accuracy of up to 0.1% FS, has a 5 times overload capability, and can detect small changes in the contact force between the robot and the external environment within a millisecond response time.
This configuration gives Huayan collaborative robot human perception capabilities.
When the robotic arm makes unexpected contact with tooling, fixtures, materials or other equipment during handling or assembly tasks, the six-dimensional force sensor can capture the precise direction and magnitude of the contact force in real time, and the control system can quickly respond by decelerating, stopping or retreating accordingly.
Compared with traditional collision detection solutions, this technical solution improves collision detection sensitivity several times, effectively avoids production line accidents such as end effector damage and battery case scratches caused by rigid impacts, and significantly reduces equipment maintenance costs and downtime losses.
Tensile pressure sensors enable assembly accuracy
In addition to collision safety, tooling positioning accuracy in automated assembly processes is also a core pain point that restricts the yield rate of new energy production lines.
The positioning accuracy requirements for processes such as power battery module assembly, cell stacking, and connector welding have reached 0.01mm level. Traditional visual guidance solutions lack force feedback during the positioning process, which often results in uncontrollable force when the clamping jaw contacts the workpiece, easily causing the workpiece to shift or be mispositioned.
Faced with this challenge, Blue Point Touch’s pull pressure sensor has become a key part of the solution.
The LE series tension pressure sensor is a high-precision unidirectional force sensing core component launched by Blue Point Touch for the industrial automation field. It focuses on the precise measurement of axial tension and pressure and provides “muscle-level” force feedback for equipment by outputting linear force data in real time.
The sensor has an IP65 waterproof and dustproof rating and a built-in low-noise amplifier. It can work stably even in the dusty and humid complex environment of the new energy production line.
In practical applications, the Huayan collaborative robot relies on the real-time axial force feedback provided by the blue-point touch pull pressure sensor when performing workpiece positioning actions, achieving an operation effect of “flexible contact and precise positioning”.
During the process of the robot arm contacting the workpiece, the force sensor continuously monitors the contact pressure, and the control algorithm dynamically adjusts the movement speed and position according to changes in force value to ensure that the workpiece is pushed to the precise positioning point with moderate force – neither part damage or positioning deviation due to excessive force, nor positioning failure due to insufficient contact force.
This force-sensing closed-loop control significantly improves the assembly consistency and yield rate of the new energy production line, providing a solid guarantee for high-standard delivery of mass production.
Strong alliances contribute “China’s power” to new energy intelligent manufacturing
This cooperation between Blue Dot Touch and Huayan Robot is a two-way trip between two technology companies, and it also represents the deep integration of domestic high-end core components and domestic collaborative robot bodies.
The technology combination of “domestic six-dimensional force sensor + domestic collaborative robot” is becoming a reliable choice for upgrading new energy automation production lines.
