A Model-free Algorithm for the Packing of Highly Irregular Shaped Objects: with Application to CZ Semiconductor Manufacture

A Robotic System is being developed to automate the crucible packing in the CZ semiconductor wafer production. It requires the delicate manipulation and packing of highly irregular shaped polycrystalline silicon nuggets, into a fragile glass crucible. Here an on-line algorithm is presented to plan the packing. It uses a method called Virtual Trial and Error. The on-line algorithm handles large numbers of highly irregularly shaped object of different sizes without requiring the object models. Working with raw vision data it is computationally fast enough to be applied in real-time to practical industrial applications, such as the CZ wafer manufacture. Simulation results show that it will compare well with the human performance.