Teleoperation of an Industrial Robot using a Non-Standalone 5G Mobile Network

Abstract

The firstly implemented 5G mobile network in South East Asia was located at Kasetsart University, Sriracha Campus, Thailand since February, 2019. In this research, an ABB IRB120 industrial robot was implemented with the 5G mobile network. A magic pen was installed on the end-effector of the ABB robot as the robot tool. The IRC5 Compact controller, main controller of the robot, was connected to Wi-Fi of a 5G CPE via the Ethernet WLAN port. In the remote computer, the web application was created as graphical user interface (GUI) for an operator to draw a picture by using a stylus pen. The XY directions was received from the GUI and then sent to the ABB robot via Non-Standalone 5G mobile network. When operator pressed a stylus pen, the Z position of the robot was changed to start drawing a picture. The industrial robot was implemented for teleoperation with the 5G mobile network which had less time lag and more stable connection. Command and feedback data were transferred on the 5G network for more than 200 km. Experiments have shown that operators can maneuver the industrial robot to draw a picture with less subjective difficulty.