Robot agnostic interface for industrial aplications

The quick evolution of robotic arms has generated many manufacturers of robotic arms, such as Universal Robots, ABB, or Fanuc. Each manufacturer offers a unique interface to program and control their robots. This can limit companies choices when selecting a suitable robot for their industrial operations, as they will choose an interface that doesn’t require new training. For that reason, and based on the experience at UPC CIM, this project will focus on creating a common interface for robotic arms. The main objectives are to produce an interface to simulate robots from different manufacturers, save and load data, and create a simple scripting language. By using ROS, an open-source software infrastructure to communicate between different robotic elements, and Python, the code will be created in five different modules: the launch application, obtaining information about the robot, editing files, moving the robot, and scripting actions. To test the resulting interface, first a setup sequence is performed to see the limitations of the interaction. Then, three theoretical scenarios are proposed, and a scripting sequence is created for each one: Pick and Place, Sorting, and Bin Picking. While limited in some aspects, the application performs as expected and offers the basic options to solve many robot implementations. New options for the future of robot interaction are open with this project, as people could also further develop this program if considere

Robot agnostic interface for industrial aplications

The quick evolution of robotic arms has generated many manufacturers of robotic arms, such as Universal Robots, ABB, or Fanuc. Each manufacturer offers a unique interface to program and control their robots. This can limit companies choices when selecting a suitable robot for their industrial operations, as they will choose an interface that doesn’t require new training. For that reason, and based on the experience at UPC CIM, this project will focus on creating a common interface for robotic arms. The main objectives are to produce an interface to simulate robots from different manu- facturers, save and load data, and create a simple scripting language. By using ROS, an open-source software infrastructure to communicate between different robotic elements, and Python, the code will be created in five different modules: the launch application, obtaining information about the robot, editing files, moving the robot, and scripting actions. To test the resulting interface, first a setup sequence is performed to see the limitations of the interaction. Then, three theoretical scenarios are proposed, and a scripting sequence is created for each one: Pick and Place, Sorting, and Bin Picking. While limited in some aspects, the application performs as expected and offers the basic options to solve many robot implementations. New options for the future of robot in- teraction are open with this project, as people could also further develop this program if considered

Improving the Flexibility and Robustness of Machine Tending Mobile Robots

While traditional manufacturing production cells consist of a fixed base robot repetitively performing tasks, the Industry 5.0 flexible manufacturing cell (FMC) aims to bring Autonomous Industrial Mobile Manipulators (AIMMs) to the factory floor. Composed of a wheeled base and a robot arm, these collaborative robots (cobots) operate alongside people while autonomously performing tasks at different workstations. AIMMs have been tested in real production systems, but the development of the control algorithms necessary for automating a robot that is a combination of two cobots remains an open challenge before the large scale adoption of this technology occurs in industry. Currently popular docking based methods require a mount point for the docking station and considerable time for the robot to locate and park. These limitations necessitate the consideration and implementation of more modern robot control and path planning techniques. This work proposes and implements a simulation testbed that uses a contemporary whole-body control, OCS2, to perform more flexible pick-and-place tasks. Within this testbed, an Industry 5.0 based pick-and-place framework is deployed, fine-tuned and tested. This system supports the one-shot lead-through based assignment of a prepick position by an operator, thus enabling the cobot to drive to this position and successfully pick up the part agnostic of base orientation and/or position. The proposed system allows robot path planning experimentation and assessment against a variety of cost and constraint values, and is capable of being modified to support various vision based part locating algorithms

Ground-Based 1U CubeSat Robotic Assembly Demonstration

Key gaps limiting in-space assembly of small satellites are (1) the lack of standardization of electromechanical CubeSat components for compatibility with commercial robotic assembly hardware, and (2) testing and modifying commercial robotic assembly hardware suitable for small satellite assembly for space operation. Working toward gap (1), the lack of standardization of CubeSat components for compatibility with commercial robotic assembly hardware, we have developed a ground-based robotic assembly of a 1U CubeSat using modular components and Commercial-Off-The-Shelf (COTS) robot arms without humans-in-the-loop. Two 16 in x 7 in x 7 in dexterous robot arms, weighing 2 kg each, are shown to work together to grasp and assemble CubeSat components into a 1U CubeSat. Addressing gap (2) in this work, solutions for adapting power-efficient COTS robot arms to assemble highly-capable CubeSats are examined. Lessons learned on thermal and power considerations for overheated motors and positioning errors were also encountered and resolved. We find that COTS robot arms with sustained throughput and processing efficiency have the potential to be cost-effective for future space missions. The two robot arms assembled a 1U CubeSat prototype in less than eight minutes