• CN: 11-2187/TH
  • ISSN: 0577-6686

Journal of Mechanical Engineering ›› 2026, Vol. 62 ›› Issue (15): 221-243.doi: 10.3901/JME.260550

Previous Articles    

A Review of Key Technologies for Automatic Assembly of Multi-branch Complex Pipelines

LIU Shaoli1, HU Jia1, LIU Jianhua1, ZHANG Jiabo2, ZHANG Bin2, WANG Lifeng1   

  1. 1. School of Mechanical Engineering, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing 100081;
    2. Beijing Spacecraft Manufacturing Co., Ltd., Beijing 100094
  • Received:2025-08-08 Revised:2026-02-09 Published:2026-10-13

Abstract: Multi-branch complex piping system is an important part of aerospace products, ships and automobiles, and its assembly quality directly determines the reliability and life of the products. To overcome the traditional manual assembly problems such as cumbersome manual operation, error-prone and low efficiency, the robot-centred assembly system provides a new idea for the automatic assembly of multi-branch complex piping, and gradually becomes a research hotspot in the field of intelligent assembly. Starting from the characteristics of the development and production of multi-branch complex pipeline, it can be seen through the analysis of its manufacturing process, the core of the multi-branch complex pipeline robot assembly is to solve the problems of pipeline detection and positioning, accurate robot grasping and collaborative assembly. Then, relevant research progress is reviewed from three aspects: intelligent perception, robot control, and automatic assembly, and the shortcomings of existing research are analyzed. Finally, it summarizes the technical challenges faced by the automatic assembly of multi-branch complex pipelines, and looks forward to the future development trend.

Key words: multi-branch complex pipelines, pose estimation, robot control, flexible assembly

CLC Number: