A Review on End-effectors of Robotic Grinding

Background: As a kind of device applied to grinding, the robot grinding end-effector, combining force control structure, adaptive structure, and other structures, has been widely used in machine grinding. Grinding end-effectors can greatly help industrial robot technology used in operations that require continuous contact, such as polishing, grinding, deburring, chamfering, and assembly. Therefore, the structure design of the end-effector will become an inevitable trend in the research on robot grinding in the future. Objective: The existing grinding end-effectors for robot grinding are summarized, and their classification, characteristics, and development are introduced. Method: Various products and designs related to grinding end-effectors are summarized. The structural features, differences, and applications of typical grinding end-effectors are introduced. Results: Three typical end-effectors are analyzed. The structural features and functions are summarized, and the development trend has been prospected. The current situation and future research direction of grinding end-effector products and patents are discussed. Conclusion: Grinding end-effectors are classified into the force-controlled grinding end-effector, the adaptive grinding end-effector, and the special structure grinding end-effector. The grinding end-effector plays an important role in promoting the development of the robot grinding industry, improving the surface quality of parts and the finishing process. The grinding end-effector needs further improvement in image processing, humanization, force control, and so on. More in-depth research should be carried out in this direction.