Automatic Assembly Equipment Technology Of Active Phased Array Antenna Based On Machine Vision

The Active Phased Array Antenna(APAA),as the eye of an active phased array radar,plays a key role in the war process.The radiating unit is the most basic unit that constitutes APAA.In order to get out of the dilemma for the time-consuming and laborious assembly and manual installation of tens of thousands of radiating elements,the paper proposed a new robotic automation assembly system for operation for radiating elements to APAA performed guided by machine vision.In order to improve the installation efficiency,the paper constructs the first automatic assembly of eight radiating elements and their attachments into one radiating element assembly,and then realizes the automated assembly of APAA with the radiating element assembly as a unit.First of all,on the basis of meeting the electrical performance requirements of APAA,the assembly precision requirements of SMA(Sub-Miniature-A,SMA)and other key components of the radiating unit,mounting base plate,and RF connector were analyzed,and its parameters were determined.Secondly,according to the APAA assembly parameters,the overall design plan of the APAA automated assembly equipment was developed.The design proposal includes the design of the equipment's mechanical structure,the establishment of the equipment's mathematical model,the determination of the equipment control system,and the intelligent decision system of the assembly process.Through image processing technology,the key parameters of the radiating unit and radiating unit components are extracted and stored into a product data management(PDM)system,which provides data support for the optimization decision system of the assembly process.Thirdly,in order to implement the overall design scheme to APAA automated assembly equipment,the following key technologies were completed in this paper: camera distortion correction based on Halcon calibration plate,image processing-based key feature extraction,and machine vision-based nine-point calibration model,the machine vision servo system based on the attitude adjustment,the attitude acquisition based on the key coordinate system of the probe,the seven-axis linkage between the Staubli robot and the guide rail,and the optimized assembly decision system based on the radiating element key point and surface distance.Finally,after completing the overall assembly and control procedures of the APAA automation equipment,an experimental assembly of the radiating unit to the radiating unit assembly and the radiating unit assembly to the APAA array were performed.The test results showed that the assembly meets the electrical performance requirements of the APAA.