Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Industrial Robots'

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.

Orientador: Edson de Paula Ferreira
Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Faculdade de Engenharia Eletrica
Made available in DSpace on 2018-07-13T23:45:43Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Silva_JorgeVicenteLopesda_M.pdf: 6182719 bytes, checksum: e4b7bfe60d4781e5ea10c6ce2172417d (MD5) Previous issue date: 1990
Resumo: Este trabalho apresenta contribuições no sentido de agilizar e otimizar a modelagem geométrica e dinâmica de robôs. A finalidade principal na utilização destes modelos é o desenvolvimento de estratégias de controle mais eficientes, que consigam compensar efeitos indesejáveis, quando é exigido um desempenho superior dos robôs. Estes modelos são de grande complexidade e sua obtenção manual, além de demorada, é extremamente árida e bastante sujeita a erros. Por este motivo, implementamos um sistema para a geração automática de modelos geométricos e modelos dinâmicos com base no formalismo de Lagrange, utilizando recursos para otimização destes modelos. É proposto um algoritmo eficiente para modelagem dinâmica, o qual elimina automaticamente um grande número de redundâncias. Este algoritmo é apresentado à nível de implementação
Abstract: This work presents contributions aiming at time saving and model improvement in the generation of geometric and dynamic robot models. The main purpose is to enable the generation of models suited for use in the development of more efficient control strategies, 50 as to compensa te effects that become undesirable when a better robot performance is required. These are quite complex models and the manual derivation of them is tedious, costly (time-consuming) and often error-prone. 50, it was implemented a system for automatic generation of symbolic geometric and dynamic robot models based in the Lagrange formulation and that also cares about model optimization. It is also proposed an efficient algorithm for dynamic modelling, which automatically eliminates a great number of redundancies. This algorithm is presented in the implementation level
Mestrado
Automação
Mestre em Engenharia Elétrica

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.

Les robots mobiles à roues orientables gagnent de la mobilité en employant des roues conventionnelles entièrement orientables, comportant deux joints actifs, un pour la direction et un autre pour la conduite. En dépit d'avoir seulement un degré de mobilité (DOM) (défini ici comme degrés de liberté instantanément autorisés DOF), correspondant à la rotation autour du centre de rotation instantané (ICR), ces robots peuvent effectuer des trajectoires planaires complexes de $ 2D $. Ils sont moins chers et ont une capacité de charge plus élevée que les roues non conventionnelles (par exemple, Sweedish ou Omni-directional) et, en tant que telles, préférées aux applications industrielles. Cependant, ce type de structure de robot mobile présente des problèmes de contrôle textit {basic} difficiles de la coordination de la direction pour éviter les combats d'actionneur, en évitant les singularités cinématiques (ICR à l'axe de la direction) et les singularités de représentation (du modèle mathématique). En plus de résoudre les problèmes de contrôle textit {basic}, cette thèse attire également l'attention et présente des solutions aux problèmes de textit {niveau d'application}. Plus précisément, nous traitons deux problèmes: la première est la nécessité de reconfigurer "de manière discontinue" les articulations de direction, une fois que la discontinuité dans la trajectoire du robot se produit. Une telle situation - la discontinuité dans le mouvement du robot - est plus susceptible de se produire de nos jours, dans le domaine émergent de la collaboration homme-robot. Les robots mobiles qui fonctionnent à proximité des travailleurs humains en mouvement rapide rencontrent généralement une discontinuité dans la trajectoire calculée en ligne. Le second apparaît dans les applications nécessitant que l'angle de l'angle soit maintenu, certains objets ou fonctionnalités restent dans le champ de vision (p. Ex., Pour les tâches basées sur la vision) ou les changements de traduction. Ensuite, le point ICR est nécessaire pour déplacer de longues distances d'un extrême de l'espace de travail à l'autre, généralement en passant par le centre géométrique du robot, où la vitesse du robot est limitée. Dans ces scénarios d'application, les contrôleurs basés sur l'ICR à l'état de l'art conduiront à des comportements / résultats insatisfaisants. Dans cette thèse, nous résolvons les problèmes de niveau d'application susmentionnés; à savoir la discontinuité dans les commandes de vitesse du robot et une planification meilleure / efficace pour le contrôle du mouvement du point ICR tout en respectant les limites maximales de performance des articulations de direction et en évitant les singularités cinématiques et représentatives. Nos résultats ont été validés expérimentalement sur une base mobile industrielle
Steerable wheeled mobile robots gain mobility by employing fully steerable conventional wheels, having two active joints, one for steering, and another for driving. Despite having only one degree of mobility (DOM) (defined here as the instantaneously accessible degrees of freedom DOF), corresponding to the rotation about the instantaneous center of rotation (ICR), such robots can perform complex $2D$ planar trajectories. They are cheaper and have higher load carrying capacity than non-conventional wheels (e.g., Sweedish or Omni-directional), and as such preferred for industrial applications. However, this type of mobile robot structure presents challenging textit{basic} control issues of steering coordination to avoid actuator fighting, avoiding kinematic (ICR at the steering joint axis) and representation (from the mathematical model) singularities. In addition to solving the textit{basic} control problems, this thesis also focuses attention and presents solutions to textit{application level} problems. Specifically we deal with two problems: the first is the necessity to "discontinuously" reconfigure the steer joints, once discontinuity in the robot trajectory occurs. Such situation - discontinuity in robot motion - is more likely to happen nowadays, in the emerging field of human-robot collaboration. Mobile robots working in the vicinity of fast moving human workers, will usually encounter discontinuity in the online computed trajectory. The second appears in applications requiring that some heading angle is to be maintained, some object or feature stays in the field of view (e.g., for vision-based tasks), or the translation verse changes. Then, the ICR point is required to move long distances from one extreme of the workspace to the other, usually passing by the robot geometric center, where the feasible robot velocity is limited. In these application scenarios, the state-of-art ICR based controllers will lead to unsatisfactory behavior/results. In this thesis, we solve the aforementioned application level problems; namely discontinuity in robot velocity commands, and better/efficient planning for ICR point motion control while respecting the maximum steer joint performance limits, and avoiding kinematic and representational singularities. Our findings has been validated experimentally on an industrial mobile base

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.

Robust, reliable and safe navigation is one of the fundamental problems of robotics. Throughout the present thesis, we tackle the problem of navigation for robotic industrial mobile-bases. We identify its components and analyze their respective challenges in order to address them. The research work presented here ultimately aims at improving the overall quality of the navigation stack of a commercially available industrial mobile-base. To introduce and survey the overall problem we first break down the navigation framework into clearly identified smaller problems. We examine the Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) problem, recalling its mathematical grounding and exploring the state of the art. We then review the problem of planning the trajectory of a mobile-base toward a desired goal in the generated environment representation. Finally we investigate and clarify the use of the subset of the Lie theory that is useful in robotics. The first problem tackled is the recognition of place for closing loops in SLAM. Loop closure refers to the ability of a robot to recognize a previously visited location and infer geometrical information between its current and past locations. Using only a 2D laser range finder sensor, we address the problem using a technique borrowed from the field of Natural Language Processing (NLP) which has been successfully applied to image-based place recognition, namely the Bag-of-Words. We further improve the method with two proposals inspired from NLP. Firstly, the comparison of places is strengthened by considering the natural relative order of features in each individual sensor reading. Secondly, topological correspondences between places in a corpus of visited places are established in order to promote together instances that are ‘close’ to one another. We then tackle the problem of motion model calibration for odometry estimation. Given a mobile-base embedding an exteroceptive sensor able to observe ego-motion, we propose a novel formulation for estimating the intrinsic parameters of an odometry motion model. Resorting to an adaptation of the pre-integration theory initially developed for inertial motion sensors, we employ iterative nonlinear on-manifold optimization to estimate the wheel radii and wheel separation. The method is further extended to jointly estimate both the intrinsic parameters of the odometry model together with the extrinsic parameters of the embedded sensor. The method is shown to accommodate to variation in model parameters quickly when the vehicle is subject to physical changes during operation. Following the generation of a map in which the robot is localized, we address the problem of estimating trajectories for motion planning. We devise a new method for estimating a sequence of robot poses forming a smooth trajectory. Regardless of the Lie group considered, the trajectory is seen as a collection of states lying on a spline with non-vanishing n-th derivatives at each point. Formulated as a multi-objective nonlinear optimization problem, it allows for the addition of cost functions such as velocity and acceleration limits, collision avoidance and more. The proposed method is evaluated for two different motion planning tasks, the planning of trajectories for a mobile-base evolving in the SE(2) manifold, and the planning of the motion of a multi-link robotic arm whose end-effector evolves in the SE(3) manifold. From our study of Lie theory, we developed a new, ready to use, programming library called `manif’. The library is open source, publicly available and is developed following good software programming practices. It is designed so that it is easy to integrate and manipulate, and allows for flexible use while facilitating the possibility to extend it beyond the already implemented Lie groups.
La navegación autónoma es uno de los problemas fundamentales de la robótica, y sus diferentes desafíos se han estudiado durante décadas. El desarrollo de métodos de navegación robusta, confiable y segura es un factor clave para la creación de funcionalidades de nivel superior en robots diseñados para operar en entornos con humanos. A lo largo de la presente tesis, abordamos el problema de navegación para bases robóticas móviles industriales; identificamos los elementos de un sistema de navegación; y analizamos y tratamos sus desafíos. El trabajo de investigación presentado aquí tiene como último objetivo mejorar la calidad general del sistema completo de navegación de una base móvil industrial disponible comercialmente. Para estudiar el problema de navegación, primero lo desglosamos en problemas menores claramente identificados. Examinamos el subproblema de mapeo del entorno y localización del robot simultáneamente (SLAM por sus siglas en ingles) y estudiamos el estado del arte del mismo. Al hacerlo, recordamos y detallamos la base matemática del problema de SLAM. Luego revisamos el subproblema de planificación de trayectorias hacia una meta deseada en la representación del entorno generada. Además, como una herramienta para las soluciones que se presentarán más adelante en el desarrollo de la tesis, investigamos y aclaramos el uso de teoría de Lie, centrándonos en el subconjunto de la teoría que es útil para la estimación de estados en robótica. Como primer elemento identificado para mejoras, abordamos el problema de reconocimiento de lugares para cerrar lazos en SLAM. El cierre de lazos se refiere a la capacidad de un robot para reconocer una ubicación visitada previamente e inferí información geométrica entre la ubicación actual del robot y aquellas reconocidas. Usando solo un sensor láser 2D, la tarea es desafiante ya que la percepción del entorno que proporciona el sensor es escasa y limitada. Abordamos el problema utilizando 'bolsas de palabras', una técnica prestada del campo de procesamiento del lenguaje natural (NLP) que se ha aplicado con éxito anteriormente al reconocimiento de lugares basado en imágenes. Nuestro método incluye dos nuevas propuestas inspiradas también en NLP. Primero, la comparación entre lugares candidatos se fortalece teniendo en cuenta el orden relativo natural de las características en cada lectura individual del sensor; y segundo, se establece un corpus de lugares visitados para promover juntos instancias que están "cerca" la una de la otra desde un punto de vista topológico. Evaluamos nuestras propuestas por separado y conjuntamente en varios conjuntos de datos, con y sin ruido, demostrando mejora en la detección de cierres de lazo para sensores láser 2D, con respecto al estado del arte. Luego abordamos el problema de la calibración del modelo de movimiento para la estimación de la edometría. Dado que nuestra base móvil incluye un sensor exteroceptivo capaz de observar el movimiento de la plataforma, proponemos una nueva formulación que permite estimar los parámetros intrínsecos del modelo cinemático de la plataforma durante el cómputo de la edometría del vehículo. Hemos recurrido a una adaptación de la teoría de reintegración inicialmente desarrollado para unidades inerciales de medida, y aplicado la técnica a nuestro modelo cinemático. El método nos permite, mediante optimización iterativa no lineal, la estimación del valor del radio de las ruedas de forma independiente y de la separación entre las mismas. El método se amplía posteriormente par idéntica de forma simultánea, estos parámetros intrínsecos junto con los parámetros extrínsecos que ubican el sensor láser con respecto al sistema de referencia de la base móvil. El método se valida en simulación y en un entorno real y se muestra que converge hacia los verdaderos valores de los parámetros. El método permite la adaptación de los parámetros intrínsecos del modelo cinemático de la plataforma derivados de cambios físicos durante la operación, tales como el impacto que el cambio de carga sobre la plataforma tiene sobre el diámetro de las ruedas. Como tercer subproblema de navegación, abordamos el reto de planificar trayectorias de movimiento de forma suave. Desarrollamos un método para planificar la trayectoria como una secuencia de configuraciones sobre una spline con n-ésimas derivadas en todos los puntos, independientemente del grupo de Lie considerado. Al ser formulado como un problema de optimización no lineal con múltiples objetivos, es posible agregar funciones de coste al problema de optimización que permitan añadir límites de velocidad o aceleración, evasión de colisiones, etc. El método propuesto es evaluado en dos tareas de planificación de movimiento diferentes, la planificación de trayectorias para una base móvil que evoluciona en la variedad SE(2), y la planificación del movimiento de un brazo robótico cuyo efector final evoluciona en la variedad SE(3). Además, cada tarea se evalúa en escenarios con complejidad de forma incremental, y se muestra un rendimiento comparable o mejor que el estado del arte mientras produce resultados más consistentes. Desde nuestro estudio de la teoría de Lie, desarrollamos una nueva biblioteca de programación llamada “manif”. La biblioteca es de código abierto, está disponible públicamente y se desarrolla siguiendo las buenas prácticas de programación de software. Esta diseñado para que sea fácil de integrar y manipular, y permite flexibilidad de uso mientras se facilita la posibilidad de extenderla más allá de los grupos de Lie inicialmente implementados. Además, la biblioteca se muestra eficiente en comparación con otras soluciones existentes. Por fin, llegamos a la conclusión del estudio de doctorado. Examinamos el trabajo de investigación y trazamos líneas para futuras investigaciones. También echamos un vistazo en los últimos años y compartimos una visión personal y experiencia del desarrollo de un doctorado industrial.

The last few years, the use of industrial robots for tasks such as material handling, welding, painting and assembly, has expanded considerably - also in general industry. A company’s use of robots requires a certain expertise within the field of robotics. To hire in-house experts can be quite costly. Many small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) consider robots in their productions, but cannot afford employing specialists. The challenge is therefore to find a way for robot system integrators to perform support and knowledge-transfer to the SMEs from the integrator’s location, making it cheaper and more efficient. To address this, one possibility is to enable remote operation of the industrial robots. This thesis aims to develop such a system, where new methods and technologies are used to achieve end-customer sup- port based on remote control. In developing a system like this, a major concern is how to efficiently communicate the state of the physical robot cell to the remote operator. The mul- tidisciplinary field CogInfoCom (Cognitive Infocommunications) deals with the connections between cognitive sciences and info communications, and was used for solving problems regarding transmission of the robot’s condition to the operator.The system developed in this thesis centers around the use of a gripper analog that the op- erator moves in space to remotely control the robot. Auditory and visual feedback for com- municating the state of the robot during control is used. The system includes functions for scaling, self-motion, motion guidance and teach-in programming, and was developed for a NACHI MR20 7-axis industrial robot. The combination of a MARG-sensor and a Microsoft Kinect was used to determine the gripper analog’s position and orientation in space.Practical experiments were performed for testing and verifying the scaling, the self-motion, the motion guidance and the teach-in programming. They demonstrated that all the func- tions lived up to their expectations. In addition, a test with a time-delay of one second was carried out. This resulted in indications that the control method aided the operator in time- delayed control, because it allowed him to plan motions ahead by relating them to his en- vironment. Moreover, a qualitative test with five participants was done to test the system’s general usability. All the participants performed a pick-and-place task, and everyone suc- cessfully completed this task. The observations during the usability test, suggested that the user interface was intuitive and easy to understand. However, the differences in camera-view perspective and control perspective could often cause confusions. With that said, it was clear that efficient usage of the system can be achieved with minimal training. During the usabil- ity test, it was also explored how the persons of interest responded to a visual overlay, cover- ing the operator’s computer monitor, turning red. In this case, the overlay gradually turned red to warn the operator that a singularity was approaching. Because most participants im- mediately halted the operation when this happened, the overlay concept was considered a beneficial way of conveying this information to the remote operator.In conclusion, the system’s utilization of a gripper analog as a tangible interface provides an intuitive way of remotely controlling industrial robots. Moreover, the use of CogInfoCom, such as the concepts of auditory and visual feedback, is a convenient way to communicate information of the robot’s state to the operator.

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.

Industrial robots are the most widely manufactured and utilized type of robots in industries. Improving the design process of industrial robots would lead to further developments in robotics industries. Consequently, other dependant industries would be benefited. Therefore, there is an effort to make the design process more and more efficient and reliable. The design of industrial robots requires studies in various fields. Engineering softwares are the tools which facilitate and accelerate the robot design processes such as dynamic simulation, structural analysis, optimization, control and so forth. Therefore, designing a framework to automate the robot design process such that different tools interact automatically would be beneficial. In this thesis, the goal is to investigate the feasibility of integrating tools from different domains such as geometry modeling, dynamic simulation, finite element analysis and optimization in order to obtain an industrial robot design and optimization framework. Meanwhile, Meta modeling is used to replace the time consuming design steps. In the optimization step, various optimization algorithms are compared based on their performance and the best suited algorithm is selected. As a result, it is shown that the objectives are achievable in a sense that finite element analysis can be efficiently integrated with the other tools and the results can be optimized during the design process. A holistic framework which can be used for design of robots with several degrees of freedom is introduced at the end.

Augmented reality (AR) is a way of overlaying digital information onto a picture or a videofeed and has been used in industrial contexts for more than 20 years. This Master's Thesis examines if AR can be used to help maintenance engineers set up and maintain robot environments by visualizing robot movement and safety zones. The main result of the Master's Thesis is a prototype application for a tablet computer. The user points the tablet towards a robot filming it and the video feed is displayed on the screen. This video feed is augmented with a virtual zone displayed around the robot, illustratingthe area where the robot is allowed to move. The application fetches the coordinatesfor the zone from the safety system SafeMove { a system designed by ABB to increase safetyand allow closer human-robot collaboration.The visualization of a SafeMove conguration is currently limited to an image of atwo-dimensional coordinate system showing the zone as a set of dierent coordinates. Thismakes it dicult grasping the full layout of the three-dimensional zone. By using theapplication the user gets a better view of the layout, allowing the user to look at the robot from different sides and see the safety zone projected around the robot. User tests show that people working with SafeMove could benefit from using the application to verify the conguration of SafeMove systems and the conclusion is that AR, if used right, greatly can improve robot interaction and maintenance.

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.

Over the past few decades the use of industrial robots has increased the efficiency as well as competitiveness of many companies. Despite this fact, in many cases, robot automation investments are considered to be technically challenging. In addition, for most small and medium sized enterprises (SME) this process is associated with high costs. Due to their continuously changing product lines, reprogramming costs are likely to exceed installation costs by a large margin. Furthermore, traditional programming methods for industrial robots are too complex for an inexperienced robot programmer, thus assistance from a robot programming expert is often needed.  We hypothesize that in order to make industrial robots more common within the SME sector, the robots should be reprogrammable by technicians or manufacturing engineers rather than robot programming experts. In this thesis we propose a high-level natural language framework for interacting with industrial robots through an instructional programming environment for the user.  The ultimate goal of this thesis is to bring robot programming to a stage where it is as easy as working together with a colleague.In this thesis we mainly address two issues. The first issue is to make interaction with a robot easier and more natural through a multimodal framework. The proposed language architecture makes it possible to manipulate, pick or place objects in a scene through high level commands. Interaction with simple voice commands and gestures enables the manufacturing engineer to focus on the task itself, rather than programming issues of the robot. This approach shifts the focus of industrial robot programming from the coordinate based programming paradigm, which currently dominates the field, to an object based programming scheme.The second issue addressed is a general framework for implementing multimodal interfaces. There have been numerous efforts to implement multimodal interfaces for computers and robots, but there is no general standard framework for developing them. The general framework proposed in this thesis is designed to perform natural language understanding, multimodal integration and semantic analysis with an incremental pipeline and includes a novel multimodal grammar language, which is used for multimodal presentation and semantic meaning generation.
robot colleague project

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.

In industrial robotics, the detection of failures is a key part of the robotsprogram to reach a robust assembly process. However, the setting up of sucha detection is long, very specific to a robotic operation and involves programmingby engineers. In response to this problematic, the thesis presented inthis paper proposes an algorithm which makes it generic and semi-automaticthe creation of a failures detection and a classification method. Based onmachine learning, the algorithm is able to learn how to differentiate betweena success and a failure scenario given a series of examples. Moreover, theproposed method makes the teaching of failure detection/classification accessiblefor any operator without any special programming skills.After the programming of movements for a standard behavior, a trainingset of sensory acquisitions is recorded while the robot performs blindlyoperation cycles. Depending on sensors nature, the gathered signals canbe binary inputs, images, sounds or other information measured by specificsensors (force, enlightening, temperature...). These signals contain specificpatterns or signatures for success and failures. The set of training examples isthen analyzed by the clustering algorithm OPTICS. The algorithm providesan intuitive representation based on similarities between signals which helpsan operator to find the patterns to differenciate success and failure situations.The labels extracted from this analysis are thus taken into account to learna classification function. This last function is able to classify efficiently anew signal between the success and failure cases encountered in the trainingperiod and then to provide a relevant feedback to the robot program. Arecovery can then easily be defined by an operator to fix the flaw.

Caused by a rising mass customisation and the high variety of equipment versions, the exibility of manufacturing systems in car productions has to be increased. In addition to a exible handling of production load changes or hardware breakdowns that are established research areas in literature, this thesis presents a skill-based recon guration mechanism for industrial mobile robots to enhance functional recon gurability. The proposed holonic multi-agent system is able to react to functional process changes while missing functionalities are created by self-organisation. Applied to a mobile commissioning system that is provided by AUDI AG, the suggested mechanism is validated in a real-world environment including the on-line veri cation of the recon gured robot functionality in a Validity Check. The present thesis includes an original contribution in three aspects: First, a recon - guration mechanism is presented that reacts in a self-organised way to functional process changes. The application layer of a hardware system converts a semantic description into functional requirements for a new robot skill. The result of this mechanism is the on-line integration of a new functionality into the running process. Second, the proposed system allows maintaining the productivity of the running process and exibly changing the robot hardware through provision of a hardware-abstraction layer. An encapsulated Recon guration Holon dynamically includes the actual con guration each time a recon guration is started. This allows reacting to changed environment settings. As the resulting agent that contains the new functionality, is identical in shape and behaviour to the existing skills, its integration into the running process is conducted without a considerable loss of productivity. Third, the suggested mechanism is composed of a novel agent design that allows implementing self-organisation during the encapsulated recon guration and dependability for standard process executions. The selective assignment of behaviour-based and cognitive agents is the basis for the exibility and e ectiveness of the proposed recon guration mechanism.

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.

Thesis (M.S.)--School of Mechanical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2005. Directed by Harvey Lipkin.
Imme Ebert-Uphoff, Committee Member ; Wayne Book, Committee Member ; Harvey Lipkin, Committee Chair. Includes bibliographical references.

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.

A 500Kg, self-contained biped robot, named Roboshift, has been conceived and tested to investigate issues associated with the control of industrial scale biped robots. This project represents the first credible attempt to build a heavy weight autonomous biped robot. The recent expansion in humanoid robot development has highlighted advances made in anthropomorphic biped technology. Current research into speech recognition, vision systems, laser topography, artificial intelligence and electroactive polymers will ultimately achieve an Android capable of human like actions and thought processes. Justification for this most demanding and expensive research is based on philanthropic models that suggest these robots will attend to the bedridden, or replace humans in dangerous areas. However, the cost of a biped robot when compared to that of a wheeled or tracked vehicle restricts commercialisation for these applications. As well, the size and working capacity of current humanoid robots is not compatible with the heavy lifting requirements found in such environments. It is proposed that only biped robots of an industrial scale, possessing a capacity much greater than that of a human, will be of commercial value in the future. Typical applications may include the handling of materials in confined or uneven terrain, where a forklift or other commercially available materials handling equipment would be unsuitable. For example, field handling in military, mining or geological environments. Minimal research has been conducted into the realisation of such a device, which presents challenges in terms of the magnitude of dynamic forces produced and of the systems required to control the robot in real-time. Review of relevant literature reveals that little research has been completed in this field. Therefore, operational characteristics for an industrial scale biped robot are defined. The design then details the structure and integration of mechanical, hydraulic, and electrical systems. Roboshift is powered by an internal combustion engine and is the first biped robot with a capacity for extended operation. Modelling was conducted to determine joint trajectories, power requirements, hydraulic flow parameters and dynamic characteristics. The robot is controlled by a distributed, hierarchical system comprising sixteen microprocessors, a control computer acting as the midbrain and a communications computer acting as the central nervous system. Sensors measure attitude and heading (vestibular system) as well as ground reaction forces and joint angles (propreoception). The control strategy is based on feed forward trajectories generated by inverse kinematic analysis. Corrections to trajectories are made in real time by higher level routines running on the main control computer. Joint position is achieved by local feedback control. Software for the robot was written in the C language. Experimental results are presented detailing the performance of the robot in comparison to theoretical analysis. After construction and testing of actuators and sensors, calibration software was tested successfully. Once calibrated, the robot was lowered to the ground where the active balance software was able to control the robot in the frontal and sagittal planes. Frontal sway software was tested with mixed success as natural oscillation of the structure, which was not detectable by the control system, led to erroneous force data. Detailed dynamic modelling was then completed to determine the causes of oscillation in the robot. The modelling led to the formulation of a control strategy where non-collocated sensors are used to measure link strain as a feedback to a modified proportional controller. The project has demonstrated that an industrial scale biped incorporating an internal combustion engine and hydraulic power system is feasible.. Analysis presented proposes that as the height of a biped robot increases, the expected elastic deformation of the structure increases as the cube of the height, making control extremely challenging. A strategy for the control of heavy-weight robots is suggested It is also proposed that technology incorporated in current humanoid robots can not be scaled to control industrial bipeds.

This master's thesis presents the development of a collision handling function for Motoman industrial robots and investigates further use of the developed software. When a collision occurs the arm is to be retracted to a safe home location and the job is to be restarted to resume the production. The retraction can be done manually, which demands that the operator has to have good knowledge in robot handling and it might be a time consuming task. To minimise the time for restarting the job after a collision and allowing employees that have limited knowledge in robot handling to retract and restart the job, Motoman provides an automatical retraction function. However, the retraction function may cause further collisions when used and therefor a new function for retracting the arm is needed. The new function is based on that the motion of the robot is recorded by sampling the servo values, which are then stored in a buffer. A job file is automatically created and loaded into the control system, and the position variables of the job file are updated using the contents of the buffer. This will ensure a safe retraction of the arm as long as the environment surrounding the robot remains the same.

The developed software made it possible to control the robot in real-time by changing the buffer information, which has lead to a cognitive system called the Pathfinder. By initiating the Pathfinder function with at least a start and an end point, the function generates a collision free path between the start point and the end point. A pilot-study has also been made concerning integration of a vision system with the Pathfinder to increase the decision handling for the function.

Industriroboter er godt kjent for sin høye repeterbarhet, noe som reflekteres i deres hovedbruksområde i industrien, deriblant ”pick and place”-operasjoner og punktsveising. Med det økende behovet for automatisering i industrien, representerer roboter en unik mulighet for nettopp dette uten å redusere fleksibiliteten. Som det imidlertid påpekes i denne masteroppgaven, ligger hovedutfordringen for industriroboter i å forbedre dårlig posisjoneringsnøyaktighet. For å løse denne utfordringen kan man endre på robotens mekaniske utforming, men et mer gjennomførbart alternativ er å forbedre eller endre programvaren i robotens styreenhet. Det siste alternativet er bedre kjent som robotkalibrering, og er metoden som benyttes i denne oppgaven. For at posisjoneringsnøyaktigheten til en industrirobot skal forbedres, bør formålet med kalibreringen være å redusere hovedårsaken til dårlig posisjoneringsnøyaktighet. Dette handler i de fleste tilfeller om robotleddenes vinkelforskyvningsfeil, også kalt offset-feil. I de praktiske implementeringene i denne masteroppgaven, utføres offset-kalibrering ved hjelp av en flensmontert laser avstandssensor og en plan flate som kalibreringsobjekt. Masteroppgaven tar utgangspunkt i en matematisk modell basert på robotens kinematiske modell, en enkoder-leddmodell, en lasersensormodell og en plan modell. Den matematiske modellen benyttes for å sette opp en beregningsmodell for laseravstandsmålingen som en funksjon av leddvinkler og de øvrige modellparameterne. Der de interessante modellparameterne er leddforskyvninger (offsets), som skal korrigere for leddenes vinkelforskyvningsfeil. For å utvikle en optimal modell som best beskriver det virkelige oppsettet, er det utført flere datainnsamlinger bestående av ulike avstandsmålinger mellom laser og plan med tilhørende vinkelkonfigurasjoner for roboten. Avslutningsvis er det brukt en minstekvadratersmetode optimeringsalgoritme for å identifisere hvilke modellparametere som gir minst avvik mellom beregningsmodellen og faktiske målinger fra datasettet. Fra dette får man leddforskyvningskorreksjonen man er ute etter.Implementeringen er realisert ved å utvikle to LabVIEW-applikasjoner; én for å utføre datainnsamlingen og én for utførelse av optimalisering. Datainnsamlingsapplikasjonen bruker ”fjernkontroll” for styring og kommunikasjon av roboten, der den lager et tilfeldig utvalg av robotpositurer med tilhørende lasermåling mot et plan. For hver positur lagres robotleddenes posisjon i enkoderverdier og laserens avstandsmåling til et datasett. I optimaliseringsapplikasjonen brukes datasettet fra innsamlingen til å optimalisere beregningsmodellen, noe som resulterer i nye modellparametere og dermed også leddforskyvingskorreksjon. Masteroppgaven presenterer beregningsmodellens prinsipp og hvordan den er tilegnet bruk på det faktiske oppsettet i forskningsanlegget til PPM AS, samt inneholder tester for å verifisere beregningsmodellen og kalibreringsprinsippet. Testene viser at beregningsmodellen er overførbar til andre robotmodeller, og at den gir en bedre tilpasning til innsamlede data ved bruk av oppdaterte modellparametere funnet i kalibreringen. Testene viser også hvordan parameterkorreksjon i kalibreringen svinger mellom de forskjellige datasettene, noe som belyser behovet for en statistisk analyse av kalibreringsresultatene. På grunn av tidsbegrensninger for gjennomføring av oppgaven, ble den statistiske analysen og endelig valideringsforsøk av den kalibrerte roboten ikke oppnådd. Oppgaven har imidlertid en egen seksjon som beskriver hvordan videre arbeid bør foregå.

Nowadays, interconnectivity is becoming increasingly important. According to industry, the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) is the core technology of Industry 4.0. Connectivity between different processes or components in the industry makes one process aware of each other, making systems more intelligent and self-sufficient. This thesis proposes various ways to control and monitor an industrial process with the cloud, explaining step by step the connections between the industrial equipment and the cloud. Furthermore, this thesis's one sub-objective is to make an industrial process, which was previously PLC-based, entirely cloud-based. For the latter work, simulation software is used to create a production line, as there is a lack of equipment. Consequently, it will also test the flexibility of the system to move between the virtual and the real environment, which is another challenge of Industry 4.0 and digitalisation. In the discussion part, the thesis talks about the shift from PLC-based to PC-based systems in the industry, mentioning the limitations and advantages.

This programme of research was supported by NEI Parsons Ltd. who sought a robotic means of polishing mechanical components. A study of the problems associated with robot controlled surface processing is presented. From this evolved an approach consistent with the formalisation of the demands of workpiece manipulation which included the adoption of the Hybrid robot control scheme capable of simultaneous force and position control. A unique 3 axis planar experimental manipulator was designed which utilized combined parallel and serial drives. A force sensing wrist was used to measure contact force. A variant of the Hybrid control 'scheme was successfully implemented on a twin computer control system. A number of manipulator control programs are presented. The force control aspect is shown both experimentally and analytically to present control problems and the research has concentrated on this aspect. A general analysis of the dynamics of force control is given which shows force response to be dependent on a number' of important parameters including force sensor, environment and manipulator dynamics. The need for a robust or adaptable force controller is discussed. A series of force controlled manipulator experiments is described and the results discussed in the context of general analyses and specific single degree of freedom simulations. Improvements to manipulator force control are suggested and some were implemented. These are discussed together with their immediate application to the improvement of robot controlled surface processing. This work also lays important foundations for long term related research. In particular the new techniques for actively controlled assembly and force control under 'fast' operation.

Durant ce travail de thèse, nous nous sommes intéressés à la commande d'un robot manipulateur industriel, configuré pour une co-manipulation avec un opérateur humain, en vue de la manutention de charges lourdes. Dans un premier temps, nous avons présenté une vue d'ensemble des études qui ont été menées dans ce cadre. Ensuite, nous avons abordé la modélisation et l'identification des paramètres dynamiques du robot Denso VP-6242G. Nous avons utilisé le logiciel OpenSYMORO pour calculer son modèle dynamique. Après une présentation détaillée de la méthode d'identification des paramètres de robots manipulateurs, nous l'avons appliqué au cas de notre robot. Cela nous a permis d'obtenir un vecteur des paramètres qui garantit une matrice d'inertie définie positive pour n'importe quelle configuration articulaire du robot, tout en assurant une bonne qualité de reconstruction des couples pour des vitesses articulaires constantes, ou variables au cours du temps. Par la suite, nous avons détaillé les nouvelles fonctionnalités proposées pour le générateur de trajectoire en temps réel, sur lequel repose notre schéma de commande. Nous avons présenté une méthode d'estimation de la force de l'opérateur à partir des mesures de la force d'interaction entre le robot et l'opérateur, tout en tenant compte de la pénalisation de la force de l'opérateur afin d'avoir une image de cette dernière permettant de générer une trajectoire qui respecte les limites de l'espace de travail. Des tests du générateur de trajectoire simulant différents cas de figure possibles nous ont permis de vérifier l'efficacité des nouvelles fonctionnalités proposées. Le générateur permet de produire une trajectoire dans l'espace de travail tridimensionnel selon la direction de l'effort appliqué par l'opérateur, ce qui contribue à l'exigence de transparence recherchée en co-manipulation robotique. Dans la dernière partie, nous avons présenté et validé en simulation une commande en impédance dont les trajectoires de référence sont issues du générateur développé. Les résultats obtenus ont donné lieu à une bonne qualité de poursuite des trajectoires désirées. D'autre part, le respect des limites virtuelles de l'espace de travail a également été pris en compte. Cependant, les trajectoires articulaires correspondantes peuvent franchir les limites définies pour préserver l'intégrité du robot
In this thesis, we were interested in the control of industrial manipulators in co-manipulation mode with a human operator for the handling of heavy loads. First, we have presented an overview of existing studies in this framework. Then, we have addressed the modeling and the identification of dynamic parameters for the Denso VP-6242G robot. We have used the OpenSYMORO software to calculate its dynamical model. After a detailed presentation of the method for identifying the robot's parameters, we have applied it to the case of our robot. This allowed us to obtain a vector of the parameters which guarantees a positive definite inertia matrix for any configuration of the robot, as well as a good quality of reconstruction of the torques in the case of constant joint velocities or in the case of variable ones over time. To continue, we have detailed the new features that have been proposed for the online trajectory generator, for which the control scheme is based on. We have presented a method for estimating the operator's force from the measurements of the interaction force between the robot and the operator, while taking into account for the penalization of the operator's force in order to have an information of this last which allows to generate a trajectory that respects the limits of workspace. Some tests of the trajectory generator simulating different possible scenarios have allowed us to check the effectiveness of the new proposed features. The generator makes it possible to produce a trajectory in the three-dimensional workspace according to the direction of the force applied by the operator, which contributes to fulfill the requirement of transparency that is sought in a co-manipulation. In the last part, we have presented and validated, in simulation, an impedance control whose reference trajectories are delivered by the proposed generator. The obtained results have shown a good trajectory tracking. On the other hand, the satisfaction of the virtual bounds of the workspace has also been nicely taken into account. However, the corresponding articular trajectories can cross the bounds defined to preserve the integrity of the robot

The computed-torque algorithm is a popular model-based robot trajectory control scheme. Adding an adaptive mechanism to this scheme can improve the error tracking capabilities of the robot controller. This thesis describes the algorithms necessary to develop a computer simulation for the PUMA 560 robot arm. Several robot controllers are outlined with an emphasis on the computed-torque scheme. The PUMA simulation is used to analyze the error tracking capabilities of an adaptive computed-torque controller. Consideration is given to parameter mismatch, unmodeled friction, unknown loading, and path excitation. This thesis shows that even with inaccurate load knowledge the adaptive algorithm enhances the tracking capabilities of the controller.

In order to be competitive in the markets of today, more and more companies try to make their production more effective by automation. Consequently more money is invested in robots and the operability of the robots becomes increasingly important. Undetected faults may result in damages, both to the robot itself and to the operator, which make detection and prediction of faults important.

The gearboxes responsible for controlling the motions of the robots are essential for their functionality. In order to increase the understanding about them this project focuses on creating a model of the stress distribution inside a gearbox.

First, the geometry of the gearbox is measured and digitalized using a vernier caliper, a protractor, a ruler and the CAD-program Solid Works. Then the geometry is imported into the finite element program Samcef.

In Samcef, the interaction between the parts in the gearbox is modeled and a dynamic simulation of the stresses inside the gearbox during a robot cycle performed.

Since there are almost no experience about Samcef at ABB SECRC, part of the project is to evaluate the program and comment the experiences received when using it.

Two main power transmission steps are identified, modeled and simulated. They are merged together into a big model where both steps are present. This model consists of all the essential power transmission inside the gearbox, from input to output. The load applied is a rotational movement on the input axle during a robot cycle.

When integrating an industrial robot to its working cell, an integrator often builds up the scene including the machines surrounding the robot in a virtual environment and performs the programming online. By introducing a precise and correct 3D model of the surroundings of the robot, the integrator must no longer go through the process of building up the environment. Using a low cost Kinect sensor mounted on an industrial robot, a series of 3D scans of the working environmentcan be acquired. By registering the 3D scans, the working environment can be mapped and the integrator can take advantage of the mapping to better adapt the robot to the environment and make the integration more flexible. The resulting 3D model can then be used as a basis for collision free path planning, better recognition and localization of static objects in the scene as workbenches and non-movable machines. This thesis investigates how well the Kinect sensor is suited for building a 3D model of the industrial robot's surroundings, that could be used for industrial robot programming and integration. The point clouds obtained using Kinect were registered together by an initial coarse registration followed by a fine registration. By doing a hand-eye calibration, the pose of Kinect relative to the robot base was obtained, and a transformation for the initial registration could be acquired from the robot itself. The fine registration was done with help of the Iterative Closest Point, which was applied to a set of keypoints extracted from the pair of point clouds to be registered by using the SIFT3D keypoint detector. As the depth data of Kinect is noisy, the data was smoothed out using the Fast Bilateral Filter. The evaluation of this mapping was done both visually and by a comparison to ground-truth data gathered with the industrial robot itself. The results showed that the error of the models obtained varied between negative and positive values, reaching values from approximately -0.5 cm to approximately 1.9 cm. It was concluded that the resulting models could be used for integrating an industrial robot and is suited when a rougher representation of the surroundings is needed where mm precision is not required.