Augmented Reality Applications for Industrial Robots

摘要

Augmented reality (AR) is a way of overlaying digital information onto a picture or a videofeed and has been used in industrial contexts for more than 20 years. This Master's Thesis examines if AR can be used to help maintenance engineers set up and maintain robot environments by visualizing robot movement and safety zones. The main result of the Master's Thesis is a prototype application for a tablet computer. The user points the tablet towards a robot filming it and the video feed is displayed on the screen. This video feed is augmented with a virtual zone displayed around the robot, illustratingthe area where the robot is allowed to move. The application fetches the coordinatesfor the zone from the safety system SafeMove { a system designed by ABB to increase safetyand allow closer human-robot collaboration.The visualization of a SafeMove conguration is currently limited to an image of atwo-dimensional coordinate system showing the zone as a set of dierent coordinates. Thismakes it dicult grasping the full layout of the three-dimensional zone. By using theapplication the user gets a better view of the layout, allowing the user to look at the robot from different sides and see the safety zone projected around the robot. User tests show that people working with SafeMove could benefit from using the application to verify the conguration of SafeMove systems and the conclusion is that AR, if used right, greatly can improve robot interaction and maintenance.