Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Industrial Robotics'

Industrial robot programs are usually created with the programming language that the manufacturer provides. These languages are often limited to cover the common usages within the industry. However, when a more advanced program is needed, then third-party programs are often used to, e.g., locating objects using vision systems, applying correct force with force torque sensors, etc. Instead of using both the language of the robot and third-party programs to create more advanced programs, it is preferable to have one system that can fully control the robot. Such systems exist, e.g., Robot Operating System (ROS), Yet Another Robot Language (YARP), etc. These systems require more time to fully set up, but once they are set up supposedly they can be used for a lot of different applications and can be used on several industrial robots from different manufacturers. Currently, University of Skövde have robots from Universal Robots (UR) with several peripheral equipment which has limited control because the built-in language does not support it. Therefore, they need help with both investigating which robot system could be used and implementing that robot system. This thesis will prove the suitability of using ROS to control aforesaid hardware, fulfilling all the requirements. It will be also demonstrated the feasibility of ROS in the long-term, according to the future plans for this equipment in University of Skövde.

Thesis (Ph.D)--Electrical and Computer Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2010.
Committee Chair: Dr. Ayanna M. Howard; Committee Member: Dr. Charles Kemp; Committee Member: Dr. Magnus Egerstedt; Committee Member: Dr. Patricio Vela. Part of the SMARTech Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Collection.

Background: With the pressing need for increased productivity and delivery of end products of uniform quality, industry is turning more and more to computer-based automation. At the present time, most of industrial automated manufacturing is carried out by specialpurpose machines, designed to perform specific functions in a manufacturing process. The inflexibility and generally high cost of these machines often referred to as hard automation systems, have led to a broad-based interest in the use of robots capable of performing a variety of manufacturing functions in a more flexible working environment and at lower production costs. A robot is a reprogrammable general-purpose manipulator with external sensors that can perform various assembly tasks. A robot may possess intelligence, which is normally due to computer algorithms associated with its controls and sensing systems. Industrial robots are general-purpose, computer-controlled manipulators consisting of several rigid links connected in series by revolute or prismatic joints. Most of today’s industrial robots, though controlled by mini and microcomputers are basically simple positional machines. They execute a given task by playing back a prerecorded or preprogrammed sequence of motion that has been previously guided or taught by the hand-held control teach box. Moreover, these robots are equipped with little or no external sensors for obtaining the information vital to its working environment. As a result robots are used mainly for relatively simple, repetitive tasks. More research effort has been directed in sensory feedback systems, which has resulted in improving the overall performance of the manipulator system. An example of a sensory feedback system would be: a vision Charge-Coupled Device (CCD) system. This can be utilized to manipulate the robot position dependant on the surrounding robot environment (various object profile sizes). This vision system can only be used within the robot movement envelope

Thesis (MScEng (Industrial Engineering))--University of Stellenbosch, 2008.
Robot control by TCP/IP communication is investigated in this thesis for existing robots used in tertiary education. The request for newer software for robotic computer control came from the University of Stellenbosch Industrial Engineering department where existing software dating back to 1988 is still in use. A thorough investigation into the research and technologies available is followed by a discussion on the proposed software to adhere to the requirement of compatibility with existing languages in use by the department and provide tools to assist in future research in robotic manipulators and control. The proposed software solution uses a client/server model running over an IP-based network providing online and offline programming with visual feedback by means of video streaming and 3D simulations, developed as separate modules combined into an effective tool for future research and development.

Intelligent gripping may be achieved through gripper design, automated part recognition, intelligent algorithm for control of the gripper, and on-line decision-making based on sensory data. A generic framework which integrates sensory data, part recognition, decision-making and gripper control to achieve intelligent gripping based on ABB industrial robot is constructed. The three-fingered gripper actuated by a linear servo actuator designed and developed in this project for precise speed and position control is capable of handling a large variety of objects. Generic algorithms for intelligent part recognition are developed. Edge vector representation is discussed. Object geometric features are extracted. Fuzzy logic is successfully utilized to enhance the intelligence of the system. The generic fuzzy logic algorithm, which may also find application in other fields, is presented. Model-based gripping planning algorithm which is capable of extracting object grasp features from its geometric features and reasoning out grasp model for objects with different geometry is proposed. Manipulator trajectory planning solves the problem of generating robot programs automatically. Object-oriented programming technique based on Visual C++ MFC is used to constitute the system software so as to ensure the compatibility, expandability and modular programming design. Hierarchical architecture for intelligent gripping is discussed, which partitions the robot’s functionalities into high-level (modeling, recognizing, planning and perception) layers, and low-level (sensing, interfacing and execute) layers. Individual system modules are integrated seamlessly to constitute the intelligent gripping system.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Mechanical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2004.
Kok-Meng Lee, Committee Chair; Shreyes Melkote, Committee Member; Bruce Webster, Committee Member; William Singhose, Committee Member; Chen Zhou, Committee Member. Includes bibliography.

Technology today has progressed to the point that the true potential of robotics is beginning to be realized. However, programming robots to be robust across varied environments and objectives, in a way that is accessible and intuitive to most users, is still a difficult task. There remain a number of unmet needs. For example, many existing solutions today are proprietary, which makes widespread adoption of a single solution difficult to achieve. Also, most approaches are highly targeted to a specific implementation. But it is not clear that these approaches will generalize to a wider range of problems and applications. To address these issues, we define the Interaction Space, or the space created by the interaction between robots and humans. This space is used to classify relevant existing work, and to conceptualize these unmet needs. GTax, a knowledge transfer framework, is presented as a solution that is able to span the Interaction Space. The framework is based on SysML, a standard used in many different systems, which provides a formalized representation and verification. Through this work, we demonstrate that by generalizing across the Interaction Space, we can simplify robot programming and enable knowledge transfer between processes, systems and application domains.

Soft robots are getting more and more popular in rehabilitation and industrial scenarios. They often come into play where the rigid robots fail to perform certain functions. The advantage of using soft robots lies in the fact that they can easily conform to the obstacles and depict delicacy in gripping, manipulating, and controlling deformable and fragile objects without causing them any harm. In rehabilitation scenarios, devices developed on the concept of soft robots are pretty helpful in changing the lives of those who suffer body impairments due to stroke or any other accident. These devices provide support in carrying out daily life activities without the need and support of another person. Also, these devices are beneficial in the training phase where the patient is going through the rehabilitation phase and has to do multiple exercises of the upper limb, wrist, or hand. Similarly, the grippers developed on the basic principle of soft robots are very common in the industries or at least getting common. Their advantages are a lot as compared to the rigid robotics manipulators. Soft grippers tend to adapt to the shape of the object without causing any damage to it, providing a stable grasp. It can also help reduce the complexity in the design and development, for example, underactuated. Underactuated grippers use the minimum number of actuators to provide the same function that requires more actuators with a rigid gripper. Also, the soft structure allows to design specific trajectories to complete a certain grasping and manipulation task. This thesis presents devices for rehabilitation and assistive application to help people with upper limb impairment, especially wrist and hand functions. These devices have been designed to provide the people, with limited capabilities of hand and wrist functions, to live their lives with ease without being dependent on any other family member. Similarly, I present different soft grippers and a soft environment that provides different advantages and can do various grasp and manipulation tasks. I have presented results for each device, rehabilitation and assistive devices are used by a patient suffering from stroke and having limited movement of wrist and hand function. At the same time, the grippers are supported with a set of experiments that provide deep insight into the advantages of each gripper in industrial applications.

What may seem straightforward for the human perception system is still challenging for robots. Automatically segmenting the elements with highest relevance or salience, i.e. the semantics, is non-trivial given the high level of variability in the world and the limits of vision sensors. This stands up when multiple ambiguous sources of information are available, which is the case when dealing with moving robots. This thesis leverages on the availability of contextual cues and multiple points of view to make the segmentation task easier. Four robotic applications will be presented, two designed for service robotics and two for an industrial context. Semantic models of indoor environments will be built enriching geometric reconstructions with semantic information about objects, structural elements and humans. Our approach leverages on the importance of context, the availability of multiple source of information, as well as multiple view points showing with extensive experiments on several datasets that these are all crucial elements to boost state-of-the-art performances. Furthermore, moving to applications with robots analyzing object surfaces instead of their surroundings, semantic models of Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymers will be built augmenting geometric models with accurate measurements of superficial fiber orientations, and inner defects invisible to the human-eye. We succeeded in reaching an industrial grade accuracy making these models useful for autonomous quality inspection and process optimization. In all applications, special attention will be paid towards fast methods suitable for real robots like the two prototypes presented in this thesis.
Il sistema percettivo umano si presta alla risoluzione di compiti che possono sembrare banali, ma che al contrario si rivelano essere delle sfide per i robot. La segmentazione automatica degli elementi di maggiore rilevanza o salienza, vale a dire la semantica, ne è un esempio in quanto è soggetta ai limiti dei sensori di visione e all’elevato grado di variabilità del mondo. In particolar modo ne abbiamo esperienza quando sono presenti più fonti di informazione, spesso ambigue, come nel caso di un robot in movimento. Questa tesi dimostra come si possa sfruttare la disponibilità di indizi contestuali e punti di vista diversi per rendere più facile l’attività di segmentazione. A dimostrazione verranno presentate quattro applicazioni robotiche, due progettate per la robotica di servizio e due per un contesto industriale. Verranno costruiti modelli semantici di scene domestiche arricchendo le ricostruzioni geometriche con delle informazioni semantiche che comprendono oggetti, elementi strutturali ed esseri umani. Il nostro approccio sfrutta il contesto, la molteplicità di fonti di informazioni e dei punti di vista, servendosi di esperimenti esaustivi condotti su diversi dataset per dimostrare come questi siano elementi cruciali per aumentare le prestazioni del robot. Inoltre, considerando scenari con robot che analizzano oggetti anziché esplorare l’ambiente, verranno costruiti modelli semantici di polimeri rinforzati in fibra di carbonio arricchendo i modelli geometrici con le misurazioni precise sull’orientazione delle fibre e i difetti interni non visibili all’occhio umano. Siamo riusciti a raggiungere una precisione di livello industriale rendendo questi modelli utili per il controllo qualità automatico e l’ottimizzazione dei processi. In tutte le applicazioni, un’attenzione particolare sarà dedicata ai metodi più veloci, adatti a robot reali come i due prototipi presentati in questa tesi.

Parallel robotic manipulators are generally believed to be stiffer under load and more precise than conventional serial manipulators. This is because of their closed loop construction which allows forces to be shared through multiple paths to the ground. Unfortunately, most proposed parallel manipulator designs have severe workspace restrictions. The introduction of Variable Geometry Trusses (VGT’s) represents an opportunity to overcome this limitation. The lack of stiffness in many serial manipulators is primarily due to compliance at the joints. The disadvantage of the series connected device include limitations in lilting capacity and vibration problems. Difficulties of this sort result from the cantilever structure of the device. These factors often limit the degrees of freedom that can be provided in the serial configuration. By replacing the revolute joints with the ‘VGT joints’, it may be possible to add considerable rigidity at the joints and hence design a highly dextrous manipulator. The objective of this thesis is to study the feasibility of a design of manipulators using Variable Geometry Trusses. A modeling scheme capable of solving the inverse problem in closed form and finding the range of all possible solutions for a planar VGT has been presented. Another aspect that has been dealt with is in utilizing the extra degree of freedom that becomes available in the proposed manipulator. Enhancing the performance of the manipulator by optimizing relevant parameters has been carried out for a demonstrative case involving a planar truss.
Master of Science

Robotic mechanisms are defined in this dissertation to be closed-loop, in-parallel actuated mechanical devices possessing several degrees-of-freedom. Parallel robotic mechanisms have recently received attention in the robotics literature as a potential alternative to the existing serial industrial robot. Serial robots are in a cantilever configuration which makes them relatively compliant and Ieads to poor accuracy. Many serial manipulators have motors that are carried on moving links which limits dynamic performance. Robotic mechanisms are in a parallel configuration which provides excellent stiffness, load-bearing, and accuracy. Robotic mechanisms combine the advantages of serial robots and closed-loop single-degree-of-freedom mechanisms to form a versatile new robotic tool. This dissertation presents theoretical kinematic analysis and design of planar robotic mechanisms. The topics covered are type and number synthesis, kinematic position solution, velocity and acceleration analysis, kinetostatic analysis, workspace optimization, and link interference avoidance. Throughout this work, comparisons are made among three general manipulator configurations: serial, parallel-serial, and fully parallel. Strengths and limitations are discussed for each configuration type. This investigation provides the analytical foundation for implementation of planar robotic mechanisms. Closed-form solutions to the kinematic position, velocity, and acceleration problems are presented. Manipulator reachable hand areas are maximized. An underlying theme of this work is tradeoffs between competing factors relating to various configurations of parallel robotic mechanisms; these tradeoffs are important design considerations. The recommendation of this dissertation is to pursue practical development of robotic mechanisms for general industrial manipulation tasks.
Ph. D.

Robots are sophisticated machines which are specially designed to have the capabilities to handle operations, on behalf of human, in many different scenarios. In the past decades, the design of robot systems has been evolving and there are increasing numbers of possible applications of robot. Some systems can even be able to overcome the individual limitations and handle complex problems by combining the strengths of multiple robots. To reduce the risk of human life, robots are now being put into missions under extremely dangerous or hazardous environment where human intervention is not tolerable , such as search-and-rescue missions inside damaged buildings after natural disasters and cleaning up of radioactive materials in nuclear accidence. Even though robots are dispensable, if they are damaged, disabled or trapped, the mission would not be accomplished. Therefore, the longevity of a robot system is always a challenge for robotic operations in such difficult environments. To tackle this challenge, many studies focus on improving the design of individual robot, minimizing the chance of robot failure; or the way that how functioning robots may share the job of the failed robots. The way that how other robots can help failed robots recover, however, has yet to be widely discussed. This thesis studies the feasibility of having multi-robot system with different automatic cooperative recovery abilities on top of its primary functions. A novel cooperative recovery framework is proposed for generic control among system primary functions and recovery behaviours. A number of experiments have been done to study the influence of cooperative recovery on a multi-robot system and how it can affect the system in terms of system performance, sustainability and overhead. An Immunity-based cooperative recovery model has also been created to overcome the drawback introduced by cooperative recovery, finding a balance between the two system objective among system productivity and longevity. Two modified versions of cooperative recovery model are also included in this study to further maximize the system potential.
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Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering
Doctoral
Doctor of Philosophy

Like computer architects, robot designers must address multiple, possibly competing, requirements by balancing trade-offs in terms of processing, memory, communication, and energy to satisfy design objectives. However, robot architects currently lack the design guidelines, organizing principles, rules of thumb, and tools that computer architects rely upon. This thesis takes a step in this direction, by analyzing the roles of heterogeneity and distribution in robot systems architecture. This thesis takes a systems architecture approach to the design of robot systems, and in particular, investigates the use of distributed, heterogeneous platforms to exploit locality in robot systems design. We show how multiple, distributed heterogeneous platforms can serve as general purpose robot systems for three distinct domains with different design objectives: increasing availability in a search and rescue mission, increasing flexibility and ease-of-use for a personal educational robot, and decreasing the computation and sensing resources necessary for navigation and foraging tasks.

This thesis explains the development of a computer vision system able to find and orient relatively small objects. The motivations is exchanging a monotonous work done by hand and replace it with an automation system with help of an ABB IRB 140 industrial robot. The vision system runs on a standard PC and is developed using the OpenCV environment, originally made by Intel in Russia. The algorithms of the system is written in C++ and the user interface in C++/CLI. With a derived test case, multiple vision algorithms is tested and evaluated for this kind of application. The result shows that SIFT/SURF works poorly with multiple instances of the search object and HAAR classifiers produces many false positives. Template matching with image moment calculation gave a satisfying result regarding multiple object in the scene and produces no false positives. Drawbacks of the selected algorithm developed where sensibility to light invariance and lack of performance in a skewed scene. The report also contains suggestions on how to precede with further improvements or research.

AASS, or the Center for Applied Autonomous Sensor Systems, is a research environment at Örebro University. This report will touch the development of a robot intended for elderly care in a project called "Project Sputnik". The robot is essentially a manually controlled communication robot that is driven by a pilot from a computer. The robot’s purpose is to provide the option of virtual visits between elders and healthcare professionals or family and friends. The requirements for the robot are numerous and the project itself is far too extensive for one student to complete in a 15 credit course. Therefore, the project was limited to the physical design only. During the pilot-study a large amount of research was done to gain a better understanding of the touched subjects and to prepare for the future development of the project. The project followed the design methodology to gradually develop a conceptual sketch. The concept should form a basis that AASS can continue the development on, and is therefore deliberately crude not to limit AASS in the continued work of Project Sputnik.
AASS, eller Centrum för tillämpade autonoma sensorsystem är en forskningsmiljö på Örebro Universitet. Den här rapporten kommer röra utvecklandet av en robot ämnad åt äldreomsorgen i ett projekt vid namn "Project Sputnik". Roboten är huvudsakligen en kommunikationsrobot som styrs manuellt av en pilot från en hemdator och ska ge en upplevelse av virtuell närvaro. Kraven för roboten är många och projektet i sig är för omfattande för en student att utföra i en kurs på 15 högskolepoäng. Därför begränsades projektet till enbart den fysiska designen. Under förstudien gjordes en stor mängd research för att få en bättre förståelse för berörda områden och förbereda inför kommande processer i projektet. Projektet följde designmetodiken för att gradvis bygga fram en konceptskiss. Konceptskissen ska utgöra en grund som AASS kan utveckla, och är därför medvetet grov för att inte begränsa AASS i det fortsatta arbetet i Project Sputnik.

Industrial robots are increasingly used within the manufacturing industry, especially in collaborative applications, where robots and operators are intended to work together in certain tasks. This collaboration needs to be safe, to ensure that an operator does not get injured in any way. One of several solutions to this is to use virtual safety zones, which limits the robots working range and area to operate within, and may be more flexible than physical fences. When the robot exceeds the allowed limit of the virtual safety zone, a control system that monitors the robot position, forces to robot to stop. Depending on the current speed and payload of the robot, the initialized stop has a braking distance until the robot has completely stopped. How far the separation distance between human and robot must be, is calculated using ISO-standard guidelines when doing risk assessments. To support affected personnel in their work, an investigation and experimentation of braking distances among several robots has been conducted. These testing experiments have been designed to simulate a collaborative operation which is an excessive risk in a robot cell. The tests have been performed with various speeds and payloads, for comparison between the robot models and for validation against already existing data. The difference with this study compared to existing ones is that several robot axis’ are used simultaneously in the testing movements, which is a benefit since a robot rarely operates with only one axis at a time.  Main results of the performed tests are that the robot doesn’t obtain speeds over 2000 mm/s when axis 1 is not involved, before the virtual safety zone is reached. Axis 1 can generate the highest speeds overall, and is therefore a significant factor of the braking distance. The results and conclusions from this thesis states that these kinds of tests give useful information to the industry when it comes to safety separation distance and risk assessments. When applying the information in a correct way, the benefits are that a shorter safety separation distance can be used without compromising on safety. This leads to great advantages in robot cell design, because space is limited on the factory floor.

This research work presents a novel Cognitive Task Planning framework for Smart Industrial Robots. The framework makes an industrial mobile manipulator robot Cognitive by applying Semantic Web Technologies. It also introduces a novel Navigation Among Movable Obstacles algorithm for robots navigating and manipulating inside a firm. The objective of Industrie 4.0 is the creation of Smart Factories: modular firms provided with cyber-physical systems able to strong customize products under the condition of highly flexible mass-production. Such systems should real-time communicate and cooperate with each other and with humans via the Internet of Things. They should intelligently adapt to the changing surroundings and autonomously navigate inside a firm while moving obstacles that occlude free paths, even if seen for the first time. At the end, in order to accomplish all these tasks while being efficient, they should learn from their actions and from that of other agents. Most of existing industrial mobile robots navigate along pre-generated trajectories. They follow ectrified wires embedded in the ground or lines painted on th efloor. When there is no expectation of environment changes and cycle times are critical, this planning is functional. When workspaces and tasks change frequently, it is better to plan dynamically: robots should autonomously navigate without relying on modifications of their environments. Consider the human behavior: humans reason about the environment and consider the possibility of moving obstacles if a certain goal cannot be reached or if moving objects may significantly shorten the path to it. This problem is named Navigation Among Movable Obstacles and is mostly known in rescue robotics. This work transposes the problem on an industrial scenario and tries to deal with its two challenges: the high dimensionality of the state space and the treatment of uncertainty. The proposed NAMO algorithm aims to focus exploration on less explored areas. For this reason it extends the Kinodynamic Motion Planning by Interior-Exterior Cell Exploration algorithm. The extension does not impose obstacles avoidance: it assigns an importance to each cell by combining the efforts necessary to reach it and that needed to free it from obstacles. The obtained algorithm is scalable because of its independence from the size of the map and from the number, shape, and pose of obstacles. It does not impose restrictions on actions to be performed: the robot can both push and grasp every object. Currently, the algorithm assumes full world knowledge but the environment is reconfigurable and the algorithm can be easily extended in order to solve NAMO problems in unknown environments. The algorithm handles sensor feedbacks and corrects uncertainties. Usually Robotics separates Motion Planning and Manipulation problems. NAMO forces their combined processing by introducing the need of manipulating multiple objects, often unknown, while navigating. Adopting standard precomputed grasps is not sufficient to deal with the big amount of existing different objects. A Semantic Knowledge Framework is proposed in support of the proposed algorithm by giving robots the ability to learn to manipulate objects and disseminate the information gained during the fulfillment of tasks. The Framework is composed by an Ontology and an Engine. The Ontology extends the IEEE Standard Ontologies for Robotics and Automation and contains descriptions of learned manipulation tasks and detected objects. It is accessible from any robot connected to the Cloud. It can be considered a data store for the efficient and reliable execution of repetitive tasks; and a Web-based repository for the exchange of information between robots and for the speed up of the learning phase. No other manipulation ontology exists respecting the IEEE Standard and, regardless the standard, the proposed ontology differs from the existing ones because of the type of features saved and the efficient way in which they can be accessed: through a super fast Cascade Hashing algorithm. The Engine lets compute and store the manipulation actions when not present in the Ontology. It is based on Reinforcement Learning techniques that avoid massive trainings on large-scale databases and favors human-robot interactions. The overall system is flexible and easily adaptable to different robots operating in different industrial environments. It is characterized by a modular structure where each software block is completely reusable. Every block is based on the open-source Robot Operating System. Not all industrial robot controllers are designed to be ROS-compliant. This thesis presents the method adopted during this research in order to Open Industrial Robot Controllers and create a ROS-Industrial interface for them.
Questa ricerca presenta una nuova struttura di Pianificazione Cognitiva delle Attività ideata per Robot Industriali Intelligenti. La struttura rende Cognitivo un manipolatore industriale mobile applicando le tecnologie offerte dal Web Semantico. Viene inoltre introdotto un nuovo algoritmo di Navigazione tra Oggetti Removibili per robot che navigano e manipolano all’interno di una fabbrica. L’obiettivo di Industria 4.0 è quello di creare Fabbriche Intelligenti: fabbriche modulari dotate di sistemi cyber-fisici in grado di customizzare i prodotti pur mantenendo una produzione di massa altamente flessibile. Tali sistemi devono essere in grado di comunicare e cooperare tra loro e con gli agenti umani in tempo reale, attraverso l’Internet delle Cose. Devono sapersi autonomamente ed intelligentemente adattare ai costanti cambiamenti dell’ambiente che li circonda. Devono saper navigare autonomamente all’interno della fabbrica, anche spostando ostacoli che occludono percorsi liberi, ed essere in grado di manipolare questi oggetti anche se visti per la prima volta. Devono essere in grado di imparare dalle loro azioni e da quelle eseguite da altri agenti. La maggior parte dei robot industriali mobili naviga secondo traiettorie generate a priori. Seguono filielettrificatiincorporatinelterrenoolineedipintesulpavimento. Pianificareapriorièfunzionale se l’ambiente è immutevole e i cicli produttivi sono caratterizzati da criticità temporali. E’ preferibile adottare una pianificazione dinamica se, invece, l’area di lavoro ed i compiti assegnati cambiano frequentemente: i robot devono saper navigare autonomamente senza tener conto dei cambiamenti circostanti. Si consideri il comportamento umano: l’uomo ragiona sulla possibilità di spostare ostacolise unaposizione obiettivo nonè raggiungibileose talespostamento puòaccorciare la traiettoria da percorrere. Questo problema viene detto Navigazione tra Oggetti Removibili ed è noto alla robotica di soccorso. Questo lavoro traspone il problema in uno scenario industriale e prova ad affrontare i suoi due obiettivi principali: l’elevata dimensione dello spazio di ricerca ed il trattamento dell’incertezza. L’algoritmo proposto vuole dare priorità di esplorazione alle aree meno esplorate, per questo estende l’algoritmo noto come Kinodynamic Motion Planning by Interior-Exterior Cell Exploration. L’estensione non impone l’elusione degli ostacoli. Assegna ad ogni cella un’importanza che combina lo sforzo necessario per raggiungerla con quello necessario per liberarla da eventuali ostacoli. L’algoritmo risultante è scalabile grazie alla sua indipendenza dalla dimensione della mappa e dal numero, forma e posizione degli ostacoli. Non impone restrizioni sulle azioni da eseguire: ogni oggetto può venir spinto o afferrato. Allo stato attuale, l’algoritmo assume una completa conoscenza del mondo circonstante. L’ambiente è però riconfigurabile di modo che l’algoritmo possa venir facilmente esteso alla risoluzione di problemi di Navigazione tra Oggetti Removibili in ambienti ignoti. L’algoritmo gestisce i feedback dati dai sensori per correggere le incertezze. Solitamente la Robotica separa la risoluzione dei problemi di pianificazione del movimento da quelli di manipolazione. La Navigazione tra Ostacoli Removibili forza il loro trattamento combinato introducendo la necessità di manipolare oggetti diversi, spesso ignoti, durante la navigazione. Adottare prese pre calcolate non fa fronte alla grande quantità e diversità di oggetti esistenti. Questa tesi propone un Framework di Conoscenza Semantica a supporto dell’algoritmo sopra esposto. Essodàairobotlacapacitàdiimparareamanipolareoggettiedisseminareleinformazioni acquisite durante il compimento dei compiti assegnati. Il Framework si compone di un’Ontologia e di un Engine. L’Ontologia estende lo Standard IEEE formulato per Ontologie per la Robotica e l’Automazione andando a definire le manipolazioni apprese e gli oggetti rilevati. È accessibile a qualsiasi robot connesso al Cloud. Può venir considerato I) una raccolta di dati per l’esecuzione efficiente ed affidabile di azioni ripetute; II) un archivio Web per lo scambio di informazioni tra robot e la velocizzazione della fase di apprendimento. Ad ora, non esistono altre ontologie sulla manipolazione che rispettino lo Standard IEEE. Indipendentemente dallo standard, l’Ontologia propostadifferiscedaquelleesistentiperiltipodiinformazionisalvateeperilmodoefficienteincui un agente può accedere a queste informazioni: attraverso un algoritmo di Cascade Hashing molto veloce. L’Engine consente il calcolo e il salvataggio delle manipolazioni non ancora in Ontologia. Si basa su tecniche di Reinforcement Learning che evitano il training massivo su basi di dati a larga scala, favorendo l’interazione uomo-robot. Infatti, viene data ai robot la possibilità di imparare dagli umani attraverso un framework di Apprendimento Robotico da Dimostrazioni. Il sistema finale è flessibile ed adattabile a robot diversi operanti in diversi ambienti industriali. È caratterizzato da una struttura modulare in cui ogni blocco è completamente riutilizzabile. Ogni blocco si basa sul sistema open-source denominato Robot Operating System. Non tutti i controllori industriali sono disegnati per essere compatibili con questa piattaforma. Viene quindi presentato il metodo che è stato adottato per aprire i controllori dei robot industriali e crearne un’interfaccia ROS.

The increasing adoption of smart sensors and actuators enables industrial applications to process data in a decentralized way. In this context, communication networks play a key role, as industrial automation applications require network architectures and communication protocols, wireless and wired, able to support the interaction between multiple devices not only in a reliable way, but also guaranteeing the meeting of real-time constrains of the supported applications. The distributed processing among coordinated automation devices includes the cooperation of robot teams. However, cooperative robot networks impose additional communication constraints to those required in the automation context. This thesis originates from the collaboration with STMicroelectronics and targets mechanisms, algorithms and protocols that meet the communication requirements of cooperative robot applications in the industrial automation scenario. With the aim to avoid the definition of "yet another protocol", the work mainly focuses on the existing communication technologies adopted in the industrial context. In particular, innovative mechanisms, algorithm and protocols built upon standard communication technologies are investigated, with the aim to meet both the specific requirements imposed by cooperative robot applications (e.g., mobility and low latency) and those that are typical of industrial automation networks. In the thesis, innovative solutions for several communication technologies, both wired and wireless, are presented and described. Among the network technologies addressed, EtherCAT, Bluetooth Low Energy, Sub-GHz Communications, the IEEE 802.15.4e and IEEE 802.11 standards. Evaluations through simulations, analysis and experiments on proof-of-concept implementations are reported, which prove the effectiveness and the suitability of the proposed solutions.

From the end of 80's there has been a great interest in the study of qualitative models to represent and to reason with spatial aspects. The present work is centred in the development and application of a model to reason about the shape and about the movement in a qualitative way, which means in a way similar to the human reasoning. The interest of this study is originated in the necessity of solutions for the recognition of objects and the description and reasoning about the movement in situations with high uncertainty, as it is the case of robotic applications, where robots only have limited and vague sensorial information. In these situations the use of a qualitative reasoning, that allows us to handle ambiguities and errors, will be the most suitable.
The movement of an object can be considered as a shape whose topologic relation with its environment (considered as another shape) changes in the time. On the other hand the shape of the objects is a spatial aspect in itself, and again for its study we have used topological concepts. The recognition of objects is important during the movement of a robot since for the accomplishment of certain tasks the robot must be able to recognize the objects with which it is finding during its trajectory, since these objects can be landmarks or reference points that provides to the robot spatial information of its environment.
Therefore this work will be centred in the study of three space aspects: the shape of the objects, the topology and the movement. Several works exist about the shape of the objects [Jungert 94; Park and Gero 99, 00; Chase 96, 97; Shokoufandeh, Dickinson et al. 02], on topology [Cohn, Bennet ET al. 97; Renz & Nebel 98; Egenhofer & Franzosa 91; Clementini & Di Felice 95] and on movement [Zimmermann and Freksa 93; Musto, Stein et al. 00; Musto et al. 99; Rajagopalan and Kuipers 94; Forbus 83; Muller 98a, 98b]. However, most of these works are theoretical and they have not been applied to robotics.
This PhD thesis presents a motion model as a qualitative representational model for integrating qualitatively time and topological information for reasoning about dynamic worlds in which spatial relations between regions and between regions and objects may change with time. This qualitative integration of time and topology has been accomplished thanks to the definition of an approach with the following three steps: (1) the definition of the algebra of the spatial aspect to be integrated, which will be time and topology. The representation of each aspect is seen as an instance of the Constraint Satisfaction Problem (CSP); (2) the definition of the Basic Step of the Inference Process (BSIP) for each spatial aspect to be integrated. In general, the BSIP consists on given two relationships which relate three objects A, B, and C (one object is shared among the two relationships, for instance A is related with B and B is related with C), we will find the third relationship between objects A and C; and (3) the definition of the Full Inference Process (FIP) for each spatial aspect to be integrated which consists on repeating the BSIP as many times as possible with the initial information and the information provided by some BSIP, until no more information can be inferred.
On the other hand, the theory for the recognition of shapes developed is able to describe several types of shapes, as they are regular and non-regular polygons, with or without holes, with or without curved segments and even completely curvilinear forms. The theory describes shapes considering qualitatively the angles, relative side length, concavities and convexities, and types of curvatures of their boundaries using only their relevant points, which are defined as vertices, and the initial, final point and point of maximum curvature of the curves. To describe shapes with holes, topological and qualitative spatial orientation aspects have been considered in order to relate the hole with its container. Each object is described by a string which describes its qualitative distinguished features (symbolic representation), which is used to match an object against the others. This theory has been applied, in an industrial domain, for the automatic and intelligent assembly of ceramic mosaics. Mosaics are made of pieces of different shapes, colours and sizes, named tesseraes, that once they are assembled they create a unique composition with high added value, due its artist and decorative value. Mosaics are made usually following a design describing the position of each tesserae in the final composition. The application developed in this dissertation, recognise individual tesseraes from pictures, which represent the tesserae coming over a conveyor, against a vectorial mosaic design. Therefore, the application returns the position of the tesserae in the mosaic together with the angle that a robot arm has to do when picking the tesserae by its centroid in order to leave it in the correct orientation inside the mosaic. On the other hand the simplest version of this theory, in concrete the part that describes regular and non-regular polygonal objects, jointly with the developed theory of movement has been applied too for the simulated navigation of a real robot, in concrete of the Khepera2 robot. This application consists in a world formed by two rooms connected by a corridor. The robot first learns the topological map of the world. Then in each room there is an object and the robot has to decide if both objects represent the same object or not, for that purpose the robot uses the movement theory to plan the way to do and to detect possible deviations during its moving, and finally by using the qualitative theory for shape matching developed decides if the objects has the same shape or not.

This diploma thesis deals with the design and virtual commissioning of a robotic workplace designed for glueing and assembling a car headlight. The thesis contains a summary of available information on the matter of virtual commissioning and industrial robotics. It also contains a system analysis of the necessary equipment, followed by a design of several workplace variants. The final solution for which the 3D model is made is selected from them. With it, in the RobotStudio software, a simulation of all processes taking place at the workplace is created. On its base, a control program is created and debugged, and virtual commissioning of the workplace is performed.

Manufacturing processes may be modeled in various ways, including 3D modeling. There is a need to visualise, control and monitor manufacturing processes remotely via the Internet. Virtual Reality (VR) can be described as the science of integrating man with information. It is based on three distinct environments: three-dimensional, interactive and computer-generated. VR has come to the Internet in the form of VR modeling. The evolution of Web technologies in recent years has enabled the use of VR modeling for visualisation of manufacturing processes. The VR modeling language (VRML), which has become the standard for transmitting 3D virtual worlds across the Internet, can be used to control and monitor manufacturing processes visually. A 3D model of a manufacturing process, specifically an industrial robot arm, was created for this project. This model was successfully linked to the industrial robot that it represents in order to control and monitor the robot’s actions remotely via the Internet using Web technologies. This dissertation proves the viablity of using Virtual Reality to effectively visualise, monitor and control an industrial robot via the Internet. It also describes the methodology that was followed in modeling the industrial robot arm in VRML as well as linking the model to the real world application.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2007.
The entire dissertation/thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file (which also appears in the research.pdf); a non-technical general description, or public abstract, appears in the public.pdf file. Title from title screen of research.pdf file (viewed on September 29, 2008) Includes bibliographical references.

A novel general purpose simulation program of robot manipulator kinematics using computer graphics has been developed in this thesis. The program can be applied in robot manipulator design, the workcell design integrated robot with other machines, motion planning study, collision avoidance study, and teaching. The wireframe geometric models of robot manipulator are written in "C" language on IBM/PC. The development of the computer graphics simulation program incorporates the joints rotation, manipulator location, trajectory generation, and manipulator programming. Further, the program has the following features: geometric model scaling, geometric model translation, variable view angle. Initially, the mathematics for spatial description and transformation are discussed. The different methods available for solving the inverse kinematics of robot manipulator are discussed and compared. The manipulator kinematics of ASEA 2000 has been analyzed and three different methods of solution: algebraic, geometric and quaternion, have been applied as an example. In addition, The point-to-point and continuous trajectory generation are presented.

Dagens hårda konkurrenssituation har lett till att många svenska företag i jakten på att sänka sina kostnader söker nya leverantörer i lågkostnadsländer. Den globala handeln har ökat markant de senaste åren men utredningar gällande hur verksamheters materialförsörjning påverkas av långväga inköp har ej hunnit med i samma utsträckning.

ABB Robotics som i sin verksamhet i Västerås utvecklar och tillverkar industrirobotsystem är ett av de företag som satsar på global handel. Som ett led i detta står verksamheten under andra halvåret av 2007 inför stora förändringar då en del av företagets leverantörsbas skall bytas från europeiska till asiatiska tillverkare. Detta examensarbete syftar till att kartlägga hur ABB Robotics materialförsörjning kommer att påverkas av bytet av leverantörsbas. Det övergripande målet är att utreda och ta fram en modell för hur verksamheter ur ett materialförsörjningsperspektiv påverkas av global handel.

Två Microsoft Excel-baserade simuleringsverktyg har tagits fram under detta examensarbete för att möjliggöra kartläggning av leverantörsbytenas inverkan hos ABB Robotics. Det ena av dessa verktyg beräknar hur säkerhetslagernivån kommer att förändras till följd av bytet av leverantörs-bas. Resultatet visar bl.a. på en markant genomsnittlig ökning med ca 700 % jämfört med dagsläget under de förutsättningar ABB Robotics angivit. Modellen är dock konstruerad så att vissa parametrar som täckningstid, servicegrad etc. enkelt kan ställas om för att undersöka dess inverkan på säkerhetslagernivån.

Det andra verktyget simulerar inleveransmönstret under utfasningen av de nuvarande leverantörerna respektive upprampningen av den nya leverantörsbasen. Resultatet av verktyget ger en bra bild av hur de inkommande lagervolymerna kommer att variera under leverantörsbytena, när topparna kommer att inträffa samt hur stora de kan förväntas bli.

I examensarbetet har ABB Robotics arbetssätt och planer inför den stundande globala handeln utvärderats och analyserats. De parametrar inom materialförsörjningen som påverkas av de globala inköpen har kartlagts liksom dess förändringar. En lista på rekommendationer från författarna gällande hur ABB Robotics bör agera vid det stundande bytet av leverantörsbas har också tagits fram.

Författarna har även som resultat av detta examensarbete arbetat fram tre generella modeller för att påvisa hur verksamheter ur ett materialförsörjningsperspektiv påverkas av globala inköp. Två av modellerna har fokuserat på förändringar hos mätbara respektive icke mätbara parametrar och dess inbördes förhållanden medan den tredje modellen påvisar korrelationer mellan två varierande parametrar.

While the accessibility and technology behind industrial robots is improving as well as becomingless expensive, the installation and conguration of industrial robot cells still proves tobe an expensive venture, especially for small and mid-sized companies. It is therefore of greatinterest to simulate robot cell installations, both for verication of system functionality as wellas for demonstration purposes for clients.However, the construction and conguration of a simulated robot cell is a time-consumingprocess and requires expertise that is often only found in engineers who are experienced withsoftware programming and spacial kinematics. If the process were to be simplied it would bringgreat advantages not only concerning the more ecient use of the time of software engineers butalso in marketing applications.As this paper will show, the use of Virtual Reality (VR) in simulating, displaying andcontrolling robots is a well investigated subject. It has been shown that VR can be used to showrobot simulation in more detail and to specify path movement in task programming. This paperfocuses upon nding and evaluating an intuitive Human Robot Interface (HRI) for interactingwith simulated robots using virtual reality.An HRI is proposed and evaluated, using the Oculus Rift Head Mounted Display (HMD)to display a 3-dimensional (3D) VR environment of a Robot Cell in ABB RobotStudio. Usingmarker-based tracking enabled by ARToolkit, the user's position in real world coordinates isforwarded to the virtual world, along with the position and orientation of a hand-held tool thatallows the user to manipulate the robot targets that are part of the simulated robots program.The system as an HRI was successful in giving the user a strong sense of immersion andgiving them a much better understanding of the robot cell and the positions of the dened robottargets. All participants were also able to dene robot targets much faster with the proposedinterface than when using the standard RobotStudio tools. Results show that the performance ofthe tracking system is adequate with regards to latency and accuracy for updating user positionand hand-held tool when using a video capture resolution of 640x480.

Orientador: João Maurício Rosário
Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Faculdade de Engenharia Mecânica
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Resumo: A necessidade atual de procedimentos automatizados em ambientes industriais exige o desenvolvimento e utilização de métodos, ferramentas e dispositivos com o objetivo de prototipagem rápida para a concepção, especificação e validação desses ambientes industriais, justificando ainda que a subutilização de dispositivos, que nesta área pode apresentar um custo elevado e se for demorado, à obsolescência dos equipamentos utilizados, fazendo com que a empresa não tenha gastos desnecessários e possa otimizar seu funcionamento. Este trabalho tem como objetivo, desenvolver metodologias, a partir da utilização de ferramentas disponíveis no mercado para a concepção de células automatizadas em ambientes industriais com integração de dispositivos robóticos. Para o desenvolvimento e validação dos conceitos e ferramentas apresentados nesse trabalho será realizado um estudo de caso, com a modelagem de dispositivos industriais utilizando o software de programação off-line de robôs RobotStudioTM, o formalismo GRAFCET como ferramenta de modelagem e integração de Sistemas Automatizados, e o ambiente LabviewTM para supervisão e controle, de modo a permitir a completa automação desse estudo de caso, e ainda a possibilidade de estabelecer que o sistema seja controlado remotamente através de comunicação via WEB
Abstract: The current need for automated procedures in industrial environments requires the development and use of methods, tools and devices for the purpose of rapid prototyping for the design, specification and validation of these industrial environments, yet justifying the underuse of devices that this area may have a high cost and if delayed, the obsolescence of the equipment used, making the company has not unnecessary expenses and can optimize its operation. This paper aims to develop methodologies, from the use of commercially available tools for designing cells in industrial environments with automated integration of robotic devices. For the development and validation of the concepts and tools presented in this work will be a case study with industrial devices using modeling software off-line programming of robots RobotStudio¿, GRAFCET formalism as a modeling tool and integration of Automated Systems, and environment LabVIEW¿ supervision and control, to allow complete automation of this case study, and the possibility of establishing the system to be controlled remotely through WEB communication
Mestrado
Mecanica dos Sólidos e Projeto Mecanico
Mestre em Engenharia Mecânica

Model-Based Systems Engineering and Logistics Engineering are emerging disciplines that offer a synergy for integrating the proactive modeling of prototype R&D acquisition and industrial base sustainment support into a framework that characterizes the most influential phases of the Department of Defense ground vehicle and robotics equipment life cycle. This research enhances situational awareness of upstream factors that drive the capability and capacity constraints to leveraging new technology for sustainment risk mitigation. These capability and capacity constraints include sub-optimal supply chain coordination and limited collaboration between government R&D centers. This research also demonstrates how a new business model called the Defense Mobility Enterprise solves these problems, while offering an incubator for Model-Based Systems Engineering experimentation and continuous productivity improvement. Through the successful application of SysML, the modeling language of systems engineering, this research concludes with multi-model orchestration, using the momentum of commercial-off-the-shelf tools, providing a strategic lens with which to specify, analyze, design, and verify Department of Defense ground vehicle and robotics technology transition opportunities.

Detta projekt åsyftade att möjliggöra för en industrirobot att illustrera godtyckliga digitalabilder på en plan yta. Detta uppnåddes genom att utrusta en manipulator med ett ritverktyg. Genom digital bildbehandling så kunde rörelsemönster genereras vilka matades till industriroboten för att den skulle kunna återskapa den digitala versionen. Roboten ritar med en teknik benämnd pointillism som innebär att endast punkter plottas. Resultatet blir en konkret svartvit representation av originalbilden. Projektet genomfördes på institutionen Industriell Produktion på Kungliga Tekniska Högskolan. Projektet är i sin natur väldigt inriktat på forskning och utveckling eftersom det går ut på skapandet av en teknik för att uppnå ett tydligt mål. Kontinuerlig utveckling var kopplat till målet för att förbättra resultatet från olika aspekter.
This project strived to enable an industrial robot to illustrate arbitrary digitized images on a planar surface. This was accomplished by equipping a robotic manipulator with a drawing utensil. Motion patterns were generated based on digital image processing and fed to the robot for it to imitate the digital version. The robot prints with a technique called pointillism, which implies that solely points are plotted. The result is a tangible black and white representation of the original image. The project was carried out in the Production Engineering facilities at the Royal Institute of Technology. The nature of the project is very research and development oriented as it deals with the creation of a technology to achieve an explicit goal. Continuous development was related to the goal to improve the result from different aspects.