Enhanced online programming for industrial robots

The use of robots and automation levels in the industrial sector is expected to grow, and is driven by the on-going need for lower costs and enhanced productivity. The manufacturing industry continues to seek ways of realizing enhanced production, and the programming of articulated production robots has been identified as a major area for improvement. However, realizing this automation level increase requires capable programming and control technologies. Many industries employ offline-programming which operates within a manually controlled and specific work environment. This is especially true within the high-volume automotive industry, particularly in high-speed assembly and component handling. For small-batch manufacturing and small to medium-sized enterprises, online programming continues to play an important role, but the complexity of programming remains a major obstacle for automation using industrial robots. Scenarios that rely on manual data input based on real world obstructions require that entire production systems cease for significant time periods while data is being manipulated, leading to financial losses. The application of simulation tools generate discrete portions of the total robot trajectories, while requiring manual inputs to link paths associated with different activities. Human input is also required to correct inaccuracies and errors resulting from unknowns and falsehoods in the environment. This study developed a new supported online robot programming approach, which is implemented as a robot control program. By applying online and offline programming in addition to appropriate manual robot control techniques, disadvantages such as manual pre-processing times and production downtimes have been either reduced or completely eliminated. The industrial requirements were evaluated considering modern manufacturing aspects. A cell-based Voronoi generation algorithm within a probabilistic world model has been introduced, together with a trajectory planner and an appropriate human machine interface. The robot programs so achieved are comparable to manually programmed robot programs and the results for a Mitsubishi RV-2AJ five-axis industrial robot are presented. Automated workspace analysis techniques and trajectory smoothing are used to accomplish this. The new robot control program considers the working production environment as a single and complete workspace. Non-productive time is required, but unlike previously reported approaches, this is achieved automatically and in a timely manner. As such, the actual cell-learning time is minimal

Computer-Aided Validation of Formal Conceptual Models

Conceptual modelling is the process of the software life cycle concerned with the identification and specification of requirements for the system to be built. The use of formal specification languages provides more precise and concise specifications. Nevertheless, there is still a need for techniques to support the validation of formal specifications against the informal user requirements. A limitation of formal specifications is that they cannot readily be understood by users unless they have been specially trained. However, user validation can be facilitated by exploiting the executable aspects of formal specification languages. This thesis presents a systematic approach and workbench environment to support the construction and validation through animation of TROLL specifications. Our approach is an iterative requirements definition process consisting of the formal specification of requirements, the automatic transformation of the specification into an executable form, and the interactive animation of the executable version to validate user requirements. To provide objects with persistence in the animation environment, we analyse how the static structure of TROLL objects can be mapped into relational tables. In order to execute the specification, we analyse the operational meaning of state transitions in TROLL, determine an execution model, and describe the transformation of the specifications into C++ code. We present a prototype implementation of the workbench environment.Die konzeptionelle Modellierung ist die Phase im Softwareentwurf, die sich mit der Identifikation und der Spezifikation von Systemanforderungen befasst. Formale Spezifikationssprachen ermöglichen präzisere und eindeutigere Spezifikationen. Trotzdem werden Techniken zur Validierung von formalen Spezifikationen bezüglich der informellen Benutzeranforderungen weiterhin benötigt. Ein Nachteil von formalen Spezifikationen ist, dass sie für Benutzer ohne entsprechende Vorkenntnisse nicht leicht verständlich sind. Die Einbeziehung der Benutzer in den Validierungsprozess kann jedoch durch die Ausführung der Spezifikation vereinfacht werden. Diese Arbeit liefert einen systematischen Ansatz und eine Entwicklungsumgebung für die Konstruktion von TROLL-Spezifikationen und deren Validierung durch Animation. Unser Ansatz basiert auf einem iterativen Prozess zur Anforderungsdefinition bestehend aus der formalen Spezifikation von Anforderungen, der automatischen Übersetzung der Spezifikation in eine ausführbare Form, und der interaktiven Animation um die Benutzeranforderungen zu validieren. Um die Objektzustände in der Animationsumgebung persistent zu halten, wird untersucht, wie die statische Struktur von TROLL-Objekten in relationale Tabellen umgesetzt werden kann. Um die Spezifikationen auszuführen, wird die operationale Bedeutung von TROLL-Zustandsübergängen analysiert und ein Ausführungsmodell festgelegt. Anschließend wird die Übersetzung von den Spezifikationen in C++ beschrieben. Wir zeigen eine prototypische Implementierung der Animationsumgebung

New models and patterns for traceability

Includes bibliographical references.Traceability is a critical software engineering practice that manages activities across the product development lifecycle. It is the discipline of getting an entire organisation to work together to build better quality products. Traceability is also about relationships between traceability items, the management of change and requires good communication between personnel on matters that impact the system in any way. At the start of the 21st Century it is evident that there was a proliferation in new traceability research promoting techniques from a number of emerging research communities. However, some researchers still report that there are still many problems, in particular the lack of empirical data from small, medium and large organisations. In this study we address this shortcoming by performing two empirical studies. Firstly, we carry out a four year case study investigating traceability in a large multinational that develops complex enterprise systems. Ericsson's is a world leader in the development of large telecom's systems and is renowned for their mature development processes, tools and highly skilled staff. We examine the state of the art at Ericsson and the factors that influence traceability, paying particular attention to how these factors change during the study and the impact that these changes have on the traceability practices. Secondly, we execute an industrial survey across nineteen corporations to further our understanding of traceability in small and medium sized organisations. Using this empirical data as the major design inputs, we design and test a Traceability Framework consisting of three solution components namely, a TRAceability Model (TRAM), a TRAceability Process (TRAP) and Traceability Patterns. The TRAceability Model (TRAM) consists of semantic models, designed using a layered approach, with each layer presenting traceability semantics from different user perspectives. The TRAceability Process (TRAP) consists of process models also utilising a layered approach but in this case capturing process elements that can be used in the creation of a traceability process in a variety of different contexts. At the lowest layer the models represent the actual traceability situation in a project at Ericsson. While patterns are a widely accepted method for describing best practices and recurring problems in many aspects of software development, they have not been applied to the field of traceability. Structural patterns emerged from the semantic and process models. Furthermore, we utilise a pre-defined pattern template for formalising the findings of the empirical data and communicating the outcomes to different users. The three components together promote better communication, reusability and understandability of traceability concepts and practices