Robot Manipulator Programming Interface based on Augmened Reality

Abstract

The integration cost of industrial robots into small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) is nowadays one of the main obstacles to make automated solutions profitable. The standard implemented human robot interface (HRI) in industrial robots, is complicated and time consuming even for trained technicians. A well-known trend in robotic manipulator development, known in the field of intelligent HRI, is aimed at to make automated solutions with industrial robots cost-effective. A HRI based on augmented reality (AR) is presented to cut short the programming phase during commissioning of industrial robots in the production line. The system proposed in the given article was implemented on a portable computer in accordance with an AR-Stylus using safety goggles mounted with a high-resolution camera and a wearable display. The hardware setup presented was used in an experiment to show, how the HRI's basic functions, namely intuitive robot programming by demonstration (PbD), visualisation and simulation of industrial robots program, could be implemented. A high level of encapsulating the programmer into an AR environment was achieved by configuring a camera tracking the 6D position of the AR-Stylus and a real-time projection of the 3D robot gripper model virtually substituting the AR-Stylus. In contrast to the HRI based on the conventional PbD method, this paper covers a new type of PbD called “virtual robot programming by demonstration” (vPbD). The accuracy of the HRI system in determining the position of the AR-Stylus was experimentally analysed. In a sequential robotic program, apart from visualising the endpoints and the trajectories in WD, a real scale 3D model projection of the robot gripper is aligned in real-world environment from the observer's perspective. This enables the operator to detect potential collisions of the robot gripper with the surrounding with efficacy. Further conclusions and developments pertaining to the study will be followed