Developing an environment that enables optimal and flexible design of robot manipulators using reconfigurable links, joints, actuators, and sensors is an essential concept towards efficient robot design and prototyping. Such an environment should have a complex set of software and hardware subsystems for designing the physical parts and the controllers, and for the algorithmic control of the robot modules (kinematics, inverse kinematics, dynamics, trajectory planning, analog control and digital computer control). Specifying object-based communications and catalog mechanisms between the software modules, controllers, physical parts, CAD designs, and actuator and sensor components is a necessary step in the prototyping activities. In this project, we propose a web interface based prototyping environment for robot manipulators with the required subsystems and interfaces between the different components of this environment. The goal is to build a system of components that allows potential customers (located anywhere geographically) to input through a web interface a set of request / design parameters and specifications (such as torque, dexterity, repeatability, velocity etc), that could be analyzed, simulated and converted to specific manufacturing information that can be ultimately used by an automated manufacturing plant. The plant would be able to build consumer robots tailored to specific requirements and deliverable to customers flexibly

Mihali, Raul

Sachenko, Anatoli

Sobh, Tarek M.

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© 2001 IEEE. Reprinted, with permission, from T. Sobh, R. Mihali and A. Sachenko, "Web Based Virtual Robot Prototyping and Manufacturing." In Proceedings of the International Conference on Industrial Electronics, Technology and Automation (IETA 2001), Cairo, Egypt, December 2001.  This material is posted here with permission of the IEEE. Such permission of the IEEE does not in any way imply IEEE endorsement of any of the University of Bridgeport's products or services. Internal or personal use of this material is permitted. However, permission to reprint/republish this material for advertising or promotional purposes or for creating new collective works for resale or redistribution must be obtained from the IEEE by writing to pubs-permissions@ieee.org. By choosing to view this document, you agree to all provisions of the copyright laws protecting it. Web Based Virtual Robot Prototyping and ManufacturingSeptember 24, 2001TAREK SOBH, RAUL MIHALISchool of Engineering and Design169 University Avenue, Bridgeport, CT 06601, U.S.A.Phone: (203) 576-4116, Fax: (203) 576-4766ANATOLI SACHENKOTernopil Academy of National Economy, Institute ofComputer Information Technology,3 Peremoga Square, 46004 Ternopil, UkrainePhone: 380 (352) 33-0830, Fax: 380 (352) 33-0024Abstract - Developing an environment that enablesoptimal and flexible design of robot manipulators usingreconfigurable links, joints, actuators, and sensors is anessential concept towards efficient robot design andprototyping. Such an environment should have acomplex set of software and hardware subsystems fordesigning the physical parts and the controllers, and forthe algorithmic control of the robot modules (kinematics,inverse kinematics, dynamics, trajectory planning,analog control and digital computer control). Specifyingobject-based communications and catalog mechanismsbetween the software modules, controllers, physicalparts, CAD designs, and actuator and sensor componentsis a necessary step in the prototyping activities.In this project, we propose a web interface basedprototyping environment for robot manipulators with therequired subsystems and interfaces between the differentcomponents of this environment. The goal is to build asystem of components that allows potential customers(located anywhere geographically) to input through aweb interface a set of request / design parameters andspecifications (such as torque, dexterity, repeatability,velocity etc), that could be analyzed, simulated andconverted to specific manufacturing information that canbe ultimately used by an automated manufacturing plant.The plant would be able to build consumer robotstailored to specific requirements and deliverable tocustomers flexibly.I. INTRODUCTIONDesigning and building an electro-mechanical systemsuch as a robot manipulator, require a diverse series oftasks, starting with specifying the tasks and performancerequirements, determining the robot configuration andparameters that are most suitable for the required tasks,ordering/manufacturing the parts and assembling therobot, developing the necessary software and hardwarecomponents (controller, simulator, monitor), and finally,testing the robot and measuring its performance.Our goal is to build a framework for the optimal andflexible design of robot manipulators with the requiredsoftware and hardware systems and modules that areindependent of the design parameters, so that it can beused for different configurations and varying parameters.Figure 1 shows a schematic view of the prototypingenvironment with its sub-systems and the interface.The task will imply various types of integrations, rangingfrom the development of a web interface, the design andconsideration of software simulators and controllers tothe design of hardware controllers, parts and automated(robotized) manufacturing facilities. To make theproposed model truly accessible and marketable, the setof requirement tasks, torques, dexterity, repetability etcwill be integrated into a web based portal, hence easilyaccess through a URL.II. BACKGROUND / EXISTING WORKTo integrate the work among different teams and sitesworking within such a large project, there must beefficient synchronization to facilitate the communicationand cooperation between the different design groups. Aconcurrent engineering infrastructure that encompassesmultiple sites and subsystems, called Palo AltoCollaborative Testbed (PACT), was proposed in [2]. Theissues discussed in that work were: cooperativedevelopment of interfaces, protocols, and architecture,sharing of knowledge among heterogeneous systems, andcomputer-aided support for negotiation and decision-making.An execution environment for heterogeneous systemscalled "InterBase’’ was proposed in [1]. It integratespreexisting systems over a distributed, autonomous, andheterogeneous environment via a tool-based interface. Inthis environment each system is associated with aRemote System Interface (RSI) that enables thetransition from the local heterogeneity of each system toa uniform system-level interface.Object orientation and its applications to integrateheterogeneous, autonomous, and distributed systems arediscussed in [5]. The argument in this work is thatobject-oriented distributed computing is a natural stepforward from the client-server systems of yesterday.Automated, flexible and intelligent manufacturing basedon object-oriented design and analysis techniques isdiscussed in [4], and a system for design, processplanning and inspection is presented.A management system for the generation and control ofdocumentation flow throughout a whole manufacturingprocess is presented in [3]. The method of qualityassurance used to develop this system covers cooperativework between different departments for documentationmanipulation.A computer-based architecture program called theDistributed and Integrated Environment for Computer-Aided Engineering (DICE), which addresses thecoordination and communication problems inengineering, was developed at the MIT IntelligentEngineering Systems Laboratory [6].A prototyping  envirnoment for robot manipulators and a3-link manipulator protopype have been developed atUtah (Utah Prototying Environment [UPE] and UtahRobot Kit [URK]) [7, 8].Various controlling, simulation and optimizationmethods have been succesfully presented  and exercisedon custom manipulators such as a tire changingmanipulator,  a generic 6 DOF manipulator, etc[9,10,11,12,13]The Ternopil Academy of National Economy (TANE)team has produced extensive work on controllerdevelopment including development of controllerstructures, controller hardware and software,reconfigurable SHP and IOS [14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21].III. IMPLEMENTATION CONSIDERATIONSOverall DesignThe Prototyping and Manufacturing Environment (PME)consists of a central interface (CI) and subsysteminterfaces (SSI). The tasks of the central interface are to:• Maintain a global database of all the informationneeded for the design process.• Communicate with the subsystems to update anychanges in the system. This requires the centralinterface to know which subsystems need to knowthese changes and send messages to thesesubsystems informing them of the required changes.• Receive messages and reports from the subsystemswhen any changes are required, or when any actionhas been taken (e.g., update complete).• Transfer data between the subsystems upon request.• Check constraints and apply some of the updaterules.• Maintain a design history containing the changesand actions that have been taken during each designprocess with date and time stamps.• Deliver reports to the customer with the currentstatus and any changes in the system.Consumer Preset Constraints, Task Specifications andRequirementsAll constraints are saved in a database (likewise theupdate rules). This makes the data entry scalable. Acustomer can add, update, and delete any constraint orupdate rule through a web portal.Complicated data structures are not required forevaluation. The database is very simple, which facilitatesmaintaining the design history.By analyzing the design constraints and the update rules,an adequate dataset will be passed through the CI to theController Simulator Block (CSB).Controller / Controller Simulator Block DesignThe first step in the design of the controller for amanipulator is to solve for its kinematics, inversekinematics, dynamics, and the feedback control equationthat will be used; the type of input and the user interfaceshould be determined at this stage too.For trajectory generation, cubic polynomials method willbe considered, which generates a cubic function thatdescribes the motion from a starting point to a goal pointin a certain time. The error in position and velocity iscalculated using the readings from the sensors. Thecontrol module simulates a PD controller to minimizethat error. The error depends on several factors such as:frequency of update, frequency of sensors reading, andthe desired trajectory (for example, if we want to move alarge number of degrees in a very small time interval, theerror will be large).The CSB will function in direct feedback through the CIwith the customer web portal, such as to allow changesto the constraint sets until they qualify as valid for themanufacturing possibilities.Once the adequate dataset has been analyzed and solvedthrough the CSB, the CI will pass the relevantinformation to the robotized manufacturing facility(RMF).The Robotized Manufacturing FacilityIn order to completely isolate the robot manufacturingfrom comprehensive human operator interventions, arobotized manufacturing facility / plant is considered.The plant will be composed of robot manipulators itself,and will be responsible for assembling the parts based onthe provided information from a successful CSBexecution. An extensive collection of "universal"hardware parts will be available for this purpose, so thatsatisfactory varieties of robots can be constructed withsame parts.IV. DESIGN APPROACHTo assure consistent viability, in the early stages of theproposed project, the focus will fall on fairly simplifiedsets of input parameters and "output" manipulators.Specifically the designable robots will resume to limitedtorque, mobility and visual interface requirements,  thenhopefully reaching the levels of automation /performance desired in industrial scale manipulators,based on the financial and intellectual resources andinterests available  .References[1] BUKHRES, O. A., CHEN, J., DU, W., ANDELMAGARMID, A. K. Interbase: An executionenvironment for heterogeneous software systems. IEEEComputer Magazine (Aug. 1993), 57-69.[2] CUTKOSKY, M. R., ENGELMORE, R. S., FIKES,R. E., GENESERETH, M. R., GRUBER, T. R., MARK,W. S., TENENBAUM, J. M., AND WEBER, J. C.PACT: An experiment in integrating concurrentengineering systems. IEEE Computer Magazine (Jan.1993), 28-37.[3] DUHOVNIK, J., TAVCAR, J., AND KOPOREC, J.Project manager with quality assurance. Computer-AidedDesign 25, 5 (May 1993), 311-319.[4] MAREFAT, M., MALHORTA, S., ANDKASHYAP, R. L. Object-oriented intelligent computer-integrated design, process planning, and inspection.IEEE Computer Magazine (Mar. 1993), 54-65.[5] NICOL, J. R., WILKES, C. T., AND MANOLA, F.A. Object orientation in heterogeneous distributedcomputing systems. IEEE Computer Magazine (June1993), 57-67.[6] SRIRAM, D., AND LOGCHER, R. The MIT diceproject. IEEE Computer Magazine (Jan. 1993), 64-71.[7] M. DEKHIL, T. M. SOBH, T. C. HENDERSON,AND R. MECKLENBURG, ‘‘UPE: Utah PrototypingEnvironment for Robot Manipulators’’. In proceedings ofthe IEEE International Conference on Robotics andAutomation, Nagoya, Japan, May 1995.[8] M. DEKHIL, T. M. SOBH, AND T. HENDERSON,‘‘URK: Utah Robot Kit - A3-link Robot Manipulator Prototype.’’. In proceedings ofthe IEEE International Conference on Robotics andAutomation, San Diego, May 1994.[9] R. MIHALI M. GRIGORIAN AND T. M. SOBH,‘‘An Application of Robotic Optimization: Design for aTire Changing Robot’’, In TSI Press Series on Roboticand Manufacturing Systems; Recent Results in Research,Development and Applications, Volume 10, pp. 421-428,2000.[10] TAREK M. SOBH AND ABDELSHAKOUR A.ABUZNEID, ‘‘A Generic Simulator/Controller forRobot Manipulators,’’ in Recent Advances inMechcatronics, Springer Verlag, pp. 575-589, 1999.[11] R. MIHALI AND T. M. SOBH, ‘‘The Formula OneTire Changing Robot (F1-T.C.R.),’’In proceedings of theIEEE International Conference on Robotics andAutomation (IEEE ICRA 99) , May 1999, Detroit,Michigan.[12] TAREK M. SOBH AND ABDELSHAKOUR A.ABUZNEID, ‘‘A Generic Simulator/Controller forRobot Manipulators’’. In proceedings of the IEEE 2ndInternational Conference on Recent Advances inMechatronics}, Istanbul, Turkey, May 1999.[13] M. GRIGORIAN AND T. M. SOBH, ‘‘Design-Simulation-Optimization Package for a Generic 6-DOFManipulator with a Spherical Wrist’’ In TSI Press Serieson Robotic and Manufacturing Systems; Recent Resultsin Research, Development and Applications, Volume 10,pp. 413-420, 2000.[14] MELNYK A., EICHELE H., POCHAEVETS A.,YATSYMIRSKYJ M. Fast Orthogonal Transforms CoreArchitecture. // Proceedings of the 43rd InternationalScientific Colloquium. Volume 1, Ilmenau, Germany,1998, p.509-514.[15] MELNYK A. DSP System Based on ProgrammableProcessor with Scalable Parametrizable Fast OrthogonalTransforms Hardware Core // Proceedings of the XIConference "Application of Microprocessors inAutomatic Control and Measurement", Volume 1,Warsaw, Poland, 1998, P.87-98[16] MELNYK A., ERMETOV Y. Facilities ofSpecialized VLSI Designing from Algorithmical TaskDescription to Register-transfer Level. «ModernProblems of Telecommunication, Computer Engineeringand Specialists Training» International Scientific-Technical Conference, Lviv,  1998, p. 108.[17] MELNYK A., EICHELE H., POCHAEVETS A.,YATSYMIRSKYJ M. A Parametrizable Scalable ASICCore for Fast Orthogonal Transforms. // Georg SimonOhm Fachhonchshule, Nuremberg, Schriftenreihe, Heft3, 1998, p.13-22.[18] A.SACHENKO, V.KOCHAN, V.TURCHENKO,«Intelligent Distributed Sensor Network», Proc. ofIMTC/98, St.Paul, USA, vol.1., 1998, pp.60-66.[19] SACHENKO A., KOCHAN V., TURCHENKO V.,«Distributed Sensor Network of Increased Efficiency»,Bulletin of State University «Lvivska politechnika» //Computer systems and networks, No 350, 1998, pp.77-80.[20] A.SACHENKO, V.KOCHAN, V.TURCHENKO,V.TYMCHYSHYN, N.VASYLKIV, «Intelligent Nodesfor Distributed Sensor Network», Proc. of IMTC/99,Venice, Italy, 1999, pp.1479-1484.[21] V. GOLOVKO, L. GRANDINETTI, V. KOCHAN,T. LAOPOULOS, A. SACHENKO, V.TURCHENKO,V. TYMCHYSHYN, «Approach of an IntelligentSensing Instrumentation Structure Development», IEEEInternational Workshop on Intelligent Signal Processing,4-7 Sep 1999, Budapest, Hungary, in press.

Web Based Virtual Robot Prototyping and Manufacturing

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Web Based Virtual Robot Prototyping and Manufacturing

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