Distributed Industrial Robot Control Using Environment Perception and Parallel Path Planning Cloud Services

Abstract

Recent developments in connected industries and internet of things identified demands for flexible reconfiguration and reprogramming of robots and machine tools. The demand for reconfiguration comes from changes in production process ordering or individual products; the demand for reprogramming comes from changing workplace organization and material flow. Yet these reconfiguration and reprogramming is often characterized by constants for a specific use-case in terms of precomputed trajectories. In this paper, we present an approach of monitoring the robot's workspace and using an online replanning of motion. We present a toolchain that is available and ready to use for a big class of industrial robots that have a position setpoint control interface. The feasibility is demonstrated in small laboratory experiments with a modular industrial robot in a common human-robot interface scenario.