On the Programming and System Integration of Robots in Flexible Manufacturing
Author
Summary, in English
Advanced manufacturing technologies and programmable machines such as
industrial robots are used to increase productivity and quality for
competitiveness on a global market. Development of increasingly
flexible manufacturing systems has resulted in an increasing
importance of software aspects, both on a system level and for
efficient interaction with human operators. Trends toward providing
customized products increase the need for flexibility, which implies
a need to build modular systems that are flexible enough to handle
frequent changes in production operations and product designs.
The objective of the research presented in this thesis is to improve
the flexibility of industrial robot software when used as a component
in flexible and reconfigurable industrial automation
solutions. Contributions are made in four areas; First, high
performance industrial motion control is enhanced to utilize arbitrary
sensors in task definition and execution. Results include an
extensible task programming language, allowing for flexible
integration of sensor motion in established robot languages. Second,
flexibility of the robot structure itself is studied, with an emphasis
on software tool configuration support for a highly modular parallel
kinematic robot featuring stiff motions and large workspace. Third,
several operator interaction techniques are evaluted for fast and easy
robot setup. Novel interaction devices and use of sensors bring new
opportunities to improve robot setup procedures. Finally, and also
pointing out future research directions, semantic web techniques are
explored for use within automatic generation of user interfaces from
product and process data and for more efficient integration of
off-line engineering tools in the workflow for online task generation.
The findings are based on a variety of industrial prototypes and case
studies, with novel software solutions ranging from low-level device
interfaces to high-level semantic integration. The experienced
resulting enhancements of flexibility, usability and modularity are
encouraging.
industrial robots are used to increase productivity and quality for
competitiveness on a global market. Development of increasingly
flexible manufacturing systems has resulted in an increasing
importance of software aspects, both on a system level and for
efficient interaction with human operators. Trends toward providing
customized products increase the need for flexibility, which implies
a need to build modular systems that are flexible enough to handle
frequent changes in production operations and product designs.
The objective of the research presented in this thesis is to improve
the flexibility of industrial robot software when used as a component
in flexible and reconfigurable industrial automation
solutions. Contributions are made in four areas; First, high
performance industrial motion control is enhanced to utilize arbitrary
sensors in task definition and execution. Results include an
extensible task programming language, allowing for flexible
integration of sensor motion in established robot languages. Second,
flexibility of the robot structure itself is studied, with an emphasis
on software tool configuration support for a highly modular parallel
kinematic robot featuring stiff motions and large workspace. Third,
several operator interaction techniques are evaluted for fast and easy
robot setup. Novel interaction devices and use of sensors bring new
opportunities to improve robot setup procedures. Finally, and also
pointing out future research directions, semantic web techniques are
explored for use within automatic generation of user interfaces from
product and process data and for more efficient integration of
off-line engineering tools in the workflow for online task generation.
The findings are based on a variety of industrial prototypes and case
studies, with novel software solutions ranging from low-level device
interfaces to high-level semantic integration. The experienced
resulting enhancements of flexibility, usability and modularity are
encouraging.
Department/s
Publishing year
2010
Language
English
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Document type
Dissertation
Topic
- Engineering and Technology
Keywords
- Industrial Robotics
- Parallel-Kinematic Robot
- Human-Robot Interfaces
- Semantic Interfaces
- Flexible Manufacturing
- Sensor-Based Motion
- Software Architecture
- Modular Robotics
Status
Published
Supervisor
Defence date
16 December 2010
Defence time
09:30
Defence place
Lectur hall E:1406, Building E, Ole Römers väg 3, Lund University Faculty of Engineering
Opponent
- Henrik Christensen (Professor)