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Fuzzy logic control of automated screw fastening

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 Robotics & Computer-Integrated Mterufacturing, Vol. 12, No. 3, pp. 235-242, 1996
Pergamon Copyright O 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd
Primed in Great Britain. All rights reserved
0736-5845]96 $15.00 + 0.00

PII:SO736--f,845(96)O0009-9

• Paper

FUZZY LOGIC CONTROL OF AUTOMATED SCREW FASTENING

NITIN DHAYAGUDE,* ZHIQIANG GAO* and FOUAD MRADt

*Electrical Engineering Department, Cleveland State University, Cleveland, OH 44115, U.S.A.
and tElectrical Engineering Department, American University of Beirut, PO Box 11-236,
Beirut, Lebanon

In this paper, we present an intelligent control strategy for automated screw fastening. In automated assembly
processes, there are often found dectlcated stations for various types/sizes of screw fastening. Problems found in
current processes include cross-threading, screw ]ammlng, slippage and the need to apply precise torque. The
intelligent controller developed here supervises the integrated process of an electric driver mounted on a robotic
positioning system to fasten screws. The new scheme controls confinuonsly the motion and driving stages to avoid
process-cansed failures, to achieve a desired precise torque and to detect bad parts at early stages of the assembly.
Initial simulation results are encouraging. Copyright © 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd.

1. INTRODUCTION 1.1. Screw-fastening process overview

Research and development in the area of robotics
and automation has been mostly concentrated in the
past on the advancements of individual technologies,
such as manipulator control, or sensing technolo-
gies. However, for complex control problems, we
often need to address the integration of technolo-
gies, specifically torque feedback, position feedback
from the tool encoder and the robotic positioning
system. This is especially important in automated
screw-fastening problems owing to their unique
requirements. Unlike standard closed-loop control
problems, where the output of the system is to be
driven to a desired setpoint, the screw-fastening
control is designed to maintain a particular torque
vs number-of-turns relationship in a process full of
disturbances and uncertainties. Such problems have
not been studied from the control-system-design
point of view, and no systematic design approach
exists at this juncture. In this paper, a fuzzy-logic-
based control system is proposed. Section 1.1 will
review the screw driving process, related concerns
and available technologies. In Section 1.2, we
present a brief review of various intelligent control
schemes and discuss the selection of a fuzzy-logic-
control approach to the fastening problem. Section
2 will present an overall description of our proposed
control scheme with a block diagram of the process
steps. The fuzzy-logic controller (FLC) is designed
and analyzed. Section 3 discusses the potential
implementation aspects of the proposed methodol-
ogy with a complete simulation model. The results
presented in Section 3.1 illustrate the technical
feasibility of our approach and highlight the claimed
advantages. Section 4 presents concluding remarks
and possible future steps.
235
In today's flexible and efficient assembly processes,
we find many workstations dedicated for screw
fastening. This present situation does not seem to
be changing in the near future, since the disadvan-
tages of alternative fasteners in joining remain
obstacles facing design and production engineers.
The disadvantages of joining-alternatives (such as
adhesives) include out-gassing, difficult reworking,
and difficult application when a precise clamp load is
needed.
In general, the screw-fastening process is required
to detect faulty joining conditions resulting from
cross-threading, jamming, slippage, partially taped
holes, or stripped threads. More sensitive applica-
tions, such as clamping a stack of magnetic disks on
a motor hub in a hard disk drive (illustrated in Fig.
1), is'21 or fastening a transmission gasket 26, need a
precise clamp load produced by a set of fasteners. In
this paper, we are addressing the concerns of the
sensitive assembly operations. In the process of
fastening a screw, there are three phases, illustrated
in Fig. 2. The first phase is the engagement, where the
screw is contacting the part for at least one
revolution. The second phase is the screw-down
period, where initial torquing is applied and the
screw head comes into contact with the part. The
third phase is the torquing period, in which the clamp
load increases linearly and data are analyzed by the
fastening system for monitoring and control strate-
gies. ~8'26 These strategies are customized for the
specific application using 16-46 parameters. 26 Some
of the factors that have an impact on the final
torquing process include: size of the screw, workpiece
material, screwhead geometry, rotating speed of the
driver, linear speed of the positioning system
236 Robotics & Computer-IntegratedManufacturing• Volume 12, Number3, 1996
Screw -~
Disk ~ l ~ " - ~ ~ Spacer
Fig. 1. A disk pack assemblyin a hard disk drive.
Torque
Engag~ n e n t f . / "
Draw-In
Time/angle
Fig. Z. Screw-fasteningprocessstages.
manipulating the driver, and the parts-coating
lubricant characteristics. 1s'25
Ideal automated fastening systems are capable of
monitoring and controlling the fastening process to
produce a consistent, precise clamp load. Existing
technologies can be classified into two families. The
first group is characterized by the monitoring of
torque vs time or angle at the end of the fastening
process. 6A°'26 In this scheme, angular encoders and
torque transducers are required to verify the success
of the joining operation. The second group consists
of torque vs angle control strategy. In this control
strategy, a reference torque value indicates the
starting of the torquing phase. After a predetermined
number of driver revolutions, the expected torque
should be achieved. Otherwise, a faulty joint is
detected.
In the sensitive assembly applications mentioned
earlier, 1s-21 these techniques are preprogrammed,
rigid and problem-dependent. In addition, they can
detect a faulty joint only at the end of the process,
but they cannot prevent or correct a potential faulty
joint. This motivated us to develop an intelligent
screw-fastening technique that provides monitoring
and control during the entire duration of the process.
Our proposed scheme will achieve precise clamp load
in a joint and detect, as well as prevent, potential
faulty process cycles. The major components used in
this scheme are popular in today's applications.
Specifically, we use an electric driver mounted on a
servo slide or a robotic manipulator that is
computer-controlled. Electric drivers offer the ability
of closed-loop control, precise and fast control of the
stop phase, as well as efficient and simple main-
tenance. 26 Our intelligent control scheme does not
count on a mathematical model of the fastening
process with all the various factors that affect the
outcome of the assembly. Instead, it acts to adjust the
driver input torque (or current) in order to maintain
an acceptable torque vs angle behavior during the
torquing process. This scheme will prevent damaging
parts by process steps and tools throughout all three
phases of assembly. It also offers early detection and
correction of bad joints or parts. Our proposed
scheme is most valuable when a precise clamp load is
required in a joint, especially when simultaneous
screws are present in the same joint. 26'21
1.2. Intelligent control techniques
The successful application of intelligent control
techniques to a wide range of problems has been
demonstrated in research publications and commer-
cial products (see Refs 1-4, 7-9, 12, 14-17, 22-24,
27). The main avenues of intelligent control include
expert systems, fuzzy logic, neural networks, self-
learning controllers and hierarchical intelligent
controllers. The intelligent control mechanism re-
places an analytic controller in a conventional
control system with a high-level decision-making
scheme that generates the control signal based on a
qualitative or heuristic understanding of the process.
Typically, the intelligent controller output is based
on known trends or rules-of-thumb of how the
process reacts in a dynamic environment. It is
capable of capturing the expert knowledge and
heuristics in various forms and incorporates this as
a part of the control mechanism. To find an
intelligent control approach for an automated
screw-fastening process, the following main meth-
odologies are evaluated.
1.3. Expert systems
An expert system uses a knowledge base of
information consisting of rules, and an inference
engine that usually searches the rule base for the best
solution. Expert systems for control are available in
some commercial products as well as in a large
volume of research literature (see, for example, Refs
16, 17, 22, 24). In our control problem, an expert
system approach would grow significantly in com-
plexity with various types of screws, processes and
specifications. It is quite possible to develop an expert
system to handle a particular screw-fastening
 Fuzzy logic control of automated screw fastening • N. D H A Y A G U D E et al.
application. But this expert system must be modified
manually by a human operator to accommodate each
change in application. Such an expert system
approach would be too rigid and problem-dependent
as a general methodology for industrial applications.
1.4. Artificial neural networks
Artificial neural network (ANN) models have been
studied for many years in hopes of duplicating the
complicated behavior and capacity for learning
demonstrated in the human brain. They consist of
many non-linear computational elements operating
in parallel, and typically are modeled by sigmoid
functions. It has been demonstrated that ANNs have
good potential in areas such as non-linear systems
and self-learning control, where conventional control
methods become overly complex to represent
adequately the characteristics of the system due to
inherent non-linearity, time delays, saturation, time-
varying parameters, and model uncertainty. Some
investigations along these lines have been done in
Refs 7, 8, 23, 27, primarily using the back-
propagation training technique.
The major effort of an A N N solution involves the
selection of a control system configuration, a
network configuration, A N N training algorithm,
and training data set. An A N N is a viable approach
to screw fastening, but it provides little under-
standing of the nuances in the control problem.
The main disadvantage in using an A N N for the
fastening problem is the lack of flexibility of the
controller. The A N N controller can be trained for a
specific fastening application. However, when the
screw sizes and processes change and the adjustments
must be made on-line, the requirement for timely
changes in the controller may well exceed its
limitations.
1.5. Fuzzy logic
Fuzzy logic uses the concept of degrees of member-
ship rather than strictly true or false to characterize
variables of interest. It is based on fuzzy-set theory
that describes a set using a smooth transition rather
than a sharp boundary between membership and
non-membership. 1.:4 The degree of membership of an
object in a set is subjective in nature, a matter of
definition and not necessarily measurement.
Fuzzy control is an appealing alternative to
conventional control methods when systems follow
some general operating characteristics and a detailed
process understanding is unknown, or traditional
system models become overly complex. The cap-
ability to capture qualitatively the attributes of a
control system based on observable phenomena is a
main feature of fuzzy control. These aspects of fuzzy
control have been demonstrated in the research
literature (see Refs 1, 2, 4, 5, 9, 12, 14), and in
commercial products from control vendors like
Reliance Electric and Omron. The ability of fuzzy
logic to capture system dynamics qualitatively, and
237
execute this qualitative idea in a real-time situation, is
an attractive feature in the control of screw-fastening
processes. In summary, the fuzzy-logic design
approach is selected for the screw-fastening problem
for its ability to characterize relations and depen-
dences that are not exactly known. The simple
structure and low computational complexity make
this approach clearly preferable to the two intelli-
gent-control methodologies above.
2. INTEGRATED CLOSED-LOOP-FASTENING
PROCESS
The overall fastening process can be illustrated as in
Fig. 3.
The need to monitor precisely the clamp load
(torque or force) achieved by a given joint
necessitates torque signal feedback. In d.c. electric
drivers, the applied torque is proportional to the
input current of the driver: torque =constant × (/),
where (/) is the armature current in an armature-
controlled motor, or the field current in a field-
controlled motor. Therefore, torque can be computed
via a current measurement. However, in small torque
applications the reactive torque applied by the
workpiece against the driver shaft cannot be ignored.
Thus the introduction of a torque (or force)
transducer to measure the actual clamp forces,
typically a network of strain gages connected by a
wheatstone bridge. 6'26 The torque sensor is installed
at the end of the driver shaft contacting the bit. These
transducers are available in different sizes, depending
on the torque range of interest. 6 The driver is
equipped with an encoder, which supplies the angular
position of the driver shaft and the corresponding
angular speed. The positioning system manipulating
the driver can be any computer-controlled position-
ing system that can move the end-effector tool in a
straight line trajectory. The various levels of
interactions among the positioning system speed,
driver rotational velocity and weight, the screw
geometry/diameter and finishing, the workpiece
material and other factors make the model of the
integrated process very uncertain. A FLC is designed
to handle this high degree of uncertainty and
* Applied torque
* Driver (rpm) angle
* Robot position
Control /~
CONTROLLER
@ Driver Scheme
@ X-Y-Z Table
Conveyor Control Strategy
Fig. 3. Fastening workccll layout.
238 Robotics & Computer-Integrated Manufacturing • Volume 12, Number3, 1996
Desired
Torque
& Angle
e(k)
Torque& angle
Fig. 4. Control system block diagram.
Measured
joint
High '~ ¢~:
Specifications ~ ~. ':i:
Low
_ _ ~ Slippage
Acceptable
torque Low High angle
measurement
Start Specifications
encoder
linear region
Fig. 5. Fuzz-logic control specifications.
complexity in the coupled system, I1 keeping in mind
that the system input (driver input torque or current,
the manipulator input torque or force) and the
output (the achieved joint torque or force) are not
fuzzy signals. Figure 4 is a block diagram of the
proposed control system showing the major utilized
signals. Note that the. purpose of the integrated
approach is to maintain an acceptable (between the
maximum and minimum technical specifications of
the product) level of joint torque at the correspond-
ing angular position (or depth) of the screw. Figure 5
illustrates the purpose of the FLC strategy.
2.1. Development of fuzzy-logic controller
In the process of developing a FLC to control a
dynamic system, a number of key items need to be
specified. A universe of discourse must be defined for
each variable and associated with linguistic labels.
Membership functions must be defined for each
linguistic label. Fuzzification and defuzzification
mapping procedures must be specified to relate each
linguistic label to its universe of discourse. Rules must
be developed to capture the control strategy qualita-
tively relating the input to FLC output.
Controller
e Fuzzification
Ae
Fig. 6. A schematic diagram for a typical fuzzy-logic controller.
Positioning
System
Input, Fz
Fuzzy ~ / Toroue
Logic
Controller
-s l
A typical FLC is thus composed of three basic
parts: input signal fuzzifieation, a fuzzy engine and
defuzzification that generates the input to the
system as a control action. Figure 6 shows a typical
FLC. The fuzzifieation block transforms the con-
tinuous input signal into linguistic fuzzy variables
such as small, medium and large. The fuzzy engine
carries out rule inference where the expert knowledge
Driver of the process to be controlled can be injected
through linguistic rules. The defuzzification block
converts the inferred control action to a continuous
signal.
2.2. Structure of the fuzzy-logic controller
The FLC developed here is a two-input single-output
controller. The two inputs are the deviation from
setpoint, error e(k) and error rate Ae(k). The FLC is
implemented in a discrete form using a zero-order-
hold as shown in Fig. 4, with membership functions
defined in Fig. 7. The membership functions are
divided into eight regions, linguistically labeled as:
positive large, medium, small and zero; negative
large, medium, small and zero, i.e. {PL, PM, PS, P0,
NL, NM, NS, NO}.
The FLC is developed based on the under-
standing of how the process works. A fuzzy-logic
control law was set up in discrete-time form, which
generates a control signal similar to the conven-
tional PI-type controller. The controller output u(k)
is given by
u(k) = u(k - 1) + F(e, Ae)
with u(0) = 1 and F(e, Ae) as the output of the FLC
for the kth sampling interval. The output member-
ship for F(e, Ae) shown in Fig. 7 is developed using
an intuitive generalization of the PI controller. 13
Control
Action
Fuzzy Rules Defuzzification
 Fuzzy logic control of automated screw fastening • N. D H A Y A G U D E et aL 239

Input Membership of straight lines for each linguistic label, starting at

NL NM NS / I PS PM PL the origin and rising to the maximum grade of
membership, i.e. a value of 1 at the endpoint. The
only exceptions are the rules with output P0 and NO,
which have a value of 1 at the origin and have the
Input Value e,~e minimum membership grade of 0 at the endpoint.
Output Membership
2.2.2. Fuzzy-logic controller tuning. Since there is no
NL NM NS I1 as PM PL established theory for developing rules and
membership functions for FLCs at this time, tuning
I -r-.~',,~ I /~./j--r J i is a heuristic process. The rules described above were
developed from expert knowledge of such processes.
Output Value u The membership partitions for e and Ae are
defined symmetrically over the universe of discourse,
Fig. 7. Fuzzy membership functions.
a region from - 1 to 1 (to permit scaling), using
positive and negative linguistic labels such as zero,
Input e Input Ae Output u small, medium and large. In general, the number of
Membership Membership Membership
Positive Small Positive Zero Positive Small membership functions can vary to provide the
resolution needed, but resolution is directly related
to the control rule generation effort, as can be seen
from Scheme 1. The eight membership functions for e
and Ae generate 64 possible partitions. The tuning
(If) e is PS e (And) he is PO &e (Then) u is PS u effort resulted in 12 regions that correspond to the
rules previously described and effectively control the
Fig. 8. Fuzzy-control rules. system.
The triangular membership functions for e and Ae
2.2.1. Rule and membership development. F(e, Ae) had their initial membership tuning center values at
includes 12 rules, shown graphically in Fig. 8 in the 0, 0.2, 0.35 and 0.6, corresponding to zero, small,
form: medium and large, respectively. The left and right
membership functions for each linguistic label were
IF " e / s label 1" A N D "Ae is label 2" arbitrarily chosen to provide membership overlap
THEN "'output is label 3". with adjacent membership functions. The member-
ship overlap provides a transition region in the FLC
The output from each rule can be treated as a
as the plant moves between operating states which
fuzzy singleton. The FLC control action is the
have different rules to control the plant. The straight
combination of the output of each rule using the
line output membership functions, stated as a
weighted average defuzzification method and can be
percentage of the maximum incremental step size,
viewed as the center of gravity of the fuzzy set of
had initial end points specified as 10, 30, 70 and
output singletons. The rule set is listed in Scheme 1;
100%, corresponding to the labels zero, small,
shaded areas indicate zero control action.
medium and large, respectively (see Fig. 7). Both
The rules and membership functions are developed
the input and output membership functions are
using an intuitive understanding of the screw-
symmetric with respect to the origin.
fastening process. A PI control strategy is captured
Tuning of the FLC was accomplished by adjusting
linguistically and implemented in the FLC as the rule
the membership functions based on the fuzzy output
set shown in Scheme 1. The rule output membership
set used to calculate the control output. Using this
functions, as shown in Fig. 6, are defined by a series
tuning approach, the existence of a dominant control
rule is indicated by a single membership function
,de
with a high membership grade. Conflicting rules are
I us I 01,01 ,s I PMI ,L indicated by two or more membership functions with
NL NL a high membership grade.
NM NM PS By evaluating the fuzzy output set for each control
action, weak and conflicting control rules can be
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: I :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
modified by adjusting the e and/or Ae membership
NO NO
functions of the linguistic labels used in the rule
e P0 P0 premise. Modifying the output membership function
~?~.~.~t~'~V:'~.~'.;.'%~
PS ~ NS adjusts the rules contribution relative to the output
PM I NS PM universe of discourse. Once the dominant rule tuning
PL PL
is completed, fine tuning of the membership
functions is performed to achieve the desired control
Scheme 1. FLC control rules performance.
240 Robotics & Computer-Integrated Manufacturing • Volume 12, Number 3, 1996
This rule optimization scheme is accomplished
through trial and error. The tuning and rule
development relies on an intuitive understanding of
how the closed-loop system operates. The method
provides tuning based on a dominant rule. If the rule
base does not have sufficient knowledge or variable
resolution to provide adequate performance, more
knowledge or rules may be required along with a
returning effort.
3. IMPLEMENTATION FEASIBILITY
The proposed control scheme of this paper would
have to be verified and tested in an experimental
setup. The practical application in an assembly line
has to be customized for the particular product and
parts as well as for the technical specifications of the
production line. The sophistication and cost of the
proposed technique have to be justified. We believe
that the applications requiring precise clamp load
from a set of screws need the advanced scheme of this
paper. At this stage, we have some positive feasibility
results based on a simulation model of the process,
keeping in mind that the uncertainty and incomplete-
ness of the integrated model required the fuzzy
control in the first place. Therefore, we acknowledge
that our simulation model is incomplete and
imprecise. However, it does verify some of the
coupling effects of which we are certain, and it
proves some of the advantages of our proposed
scheme. We do not attempt to model the fastening
process complexity, neither are we capable of doing
that owing to the large number of variables and
unmodelled couplings in the integrated process. We
present next the approximated model of the fastening
process and the simulation results of applying the
proposed FLC scheme on the computer model.
3.1. Simulation
The model adopted for the simulation is derived
using the Euler-Lagrange equation of motion of the
system presented in Fig. 3 earlier. The following
dynamic equations describe approximately the
motion of the screw-fastening process.
m~ =Fz + mg - [kz~ + ko 0]
J0 =~in - Boa - Bz~, = ~joint
where Zjoint is the achieved actual joint torque (load)
(Nm), zi, is the input torque (Nm), m is the mass of
the driver mounted in the end effector (kg), F= is the
input force of the linear servo slide (N), g is the
gravitational acceleration (m/see2), k= is the constant
of friction, ~ is the linear velocity of servo slide (In/
see), ko is the constant of friction, 0 is the rotational
velocity of the driver (rad/see), J is the total inertia
(kg m2), Bo is the viscous friction constant, B~ is the
viscous friction constant.
The FLC system presented in Section 2.1 is applied
to the process described above. The goal is to achieve
a desired torque and angle relationship as described
0 ~
-2
z -4
N
It.
-6
-8
-10
0 0.1 0.2
time in sec
Fig. 9. Manipulator input force, with pulse disturbance.
in Fig. 2. This control scheme adjusts the driver input
torque in order to maintain the desired torque/angle
relation during the entire fastening process. This
FLC was developed using MATLAB and implemen-
ted on a VAX-750 system. The simulations were
carried out with noisy transducer measurements and
pulse disturbances in the manipulator input force.
The disturbances are injected to mimic the commonly
seen motion jerks and jamming in such processes.
The sensor noise was added to simulate closely the
actual screw-fastening process. The noise was
assumed to be normally distributed.
From the simulation results, we note that the FLC
was able to handle a rather large and impulsive
disturbance in F= as illustrated in Figs 9, 10 and 11.
In particular, Fig. 9 shows the manipulator input
force with a significant pulse disturbance at 0.1 see.
Without proper adjustment to the input torque "Cin,
such a disturbance would directly affect the joint
torque Zjoint. It is shown in Figs 10 and 11 that the
FLC successfully modified the input torque and kept
the joint torque in the proper range. In Fig. 12, the
viscous friction constant changes gradually by 100%
from t=0.075 sec to t=0.125 sec, simulating the
variations in different parts and operating conditions.
The fuzzy controller accommodated such a change
2.5
zE 1.51
.=_
o
1,
0.5'
Ij
~5
r,i
"5
0 0
-0.5
-1
0 10 2o
"fheta in tad
Fig. 10. Joint torque vs driver angular position.
 Fuzzy logic control of automated screw fastening • N. D H A Y A G U D E et aL 241

the achieved joint torque at the specific driver angle is

3.5 novel and, to the best of our knowledge, has not been
performed. We believe that the complexity and c o s t
3 of implementing the proposed scheme are justified
E
z 2.5 only in certain fastening steps and products, for
.m
instance, when a precise clamp load is needed from
2 one or more screw joints. The proposed scheme is
.9,o portable to other fastening applications, such as bolt
"5 1.5
0... tightening. The feasibility study was carried out
1 based on an approximate model simulation. The
promising results wiU be experimentally tested, where
0.5
the actual integrated fastening process does not need
to be modeled or approximated. Our study verified
0 011 0.2
time in sec the usefulness of the F L C in adjusting the driver
motion to guarantee the acceptable joint torque.
Fig. 11. FLC output, driver input torque• Furthermore, the robustness of the proposed scheme
was demonstrated in the presence of noisy measure-
2.5 4.5 ments and jerky manipulator motion. The same
4 control scheme is thought to be capable of detection
of early error, such as jamming or slippage
3.5
E 1.5 situations.
z
.=_ c

"~ 2.5 Acknlowedgements---This work was partially supported by

E
"q 0.5 g2 an American University of Beirut Research grant. The need
to solve this particular problem in the fastening process was
~1.5 identified in the IBM hard disk drive assembly plant of
o 0
1 Rochester, MN. The feasibility study was done in the
-0.5 0.5 Electrical Engineering Department of Cleveland State
University, OH.
-1 0
0 10 20 0 0.1 0.2
Theta in rad Ume in sec
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