Advanced Methods for Robot-Environment Interaction towards an Industrial Robot Aware of Its Volume

Abstract

A fundamental aspect of robot-environment interaction in industrial environments is given by the capability of the control system to model the structured and unstructured environment features. Industrial robots have to perform complex tasks at high speeds and have to satisfy hard cycle times while maintaining the operations extremely precise. The capability of the robot to perceive the presence of environmental objects is something still missing in the real industrial context. Although anthropomorphic robot producers have faced problems related to the interaction between robot and its environment, there is not an exhaustive study on the capabilities of the robot being aware of its volume and on the tools eventually mounted on its flange. In this paper, a solution to model the environment of the robot in order to make it capable of perceiving and avoiding collisions with the objects in its surroundings is shown. Furthermore, the model will be extended to take also into account the volume of the robot tool in order to extend the perception capabilities of the entire system. Testing results will be showed in order to validate the method, proving that the system is able to cope with complex real surroundings.

Velocity and Posture Selection for Torque Optimization in Manipulators with Two-Dimensional Force Requirements

“…In this case, even though interesting solutions already exists, different and enhanced approaches can always be developed in order to improve specific robot parameters. On industrial robots, for instance, developments in computational vision and force control strategies are common solutions that promote the robot perception of its environment (Romanelli, 2011). For example, the use of force control can support the execution of high accurate movements.…”

Wrench capability polytopes in redundant parallel manipulators

“…Also, nowadays, the use of robots in every facet of society, including the home, is being seriously considered. In this context, creating autonomous robots that can learn to act in unpredictable environments has been a long-standing goal of robotics, artificial intelligence, and cognitive sciences (Romanelli, 2011).…”

“…An important step towards the autonomy of robots is the need to provide them with a certain level of independence in order to face quick changes in the environment surrounding them; to get robots operating outside rigidly structured environments, such as research centres or universities facilities and beyond the supervision of engineers or experts, it is necessary to face different technological challenges, amongst them, the development of strategies that allow robots to interact with the environment (Romanelli, 2011).…”

“…In contrast to the non-contact tasks, many complex advanced robotic applications as packaging, assembling, or machining require the manipulator to be coupled with other objects which can move, this kind of applications can be categorized as contact tasks. In the future of robotics, the interaction with the environment is fundamental and more and more tasks will include and require interaction (Romanelli, 2011).…”

A real time distributed approach to collision avoidance for industrial manipulators

“…They are asked to accomplish their tasks in a workspace containing obstacles as fast as possible or with minimal energy consumption, while preserving a strong autonomy. The capability of managing changes in the environment [17] would represent an important step toward a real autonomy of the robot behavior. Different technological challenges somehow limited until now the robots functionality outside rigidly structured environments.…”