Towards Real-Time Human-Machine Interfaces for Robot Cells Using Open Standard Web Technologies

Abstract

Screen-based human-machine interfaces are one of the most important elements of industrial automation technologies since modern production lines became too complex to be controlled by a simple start/stop button. While web-based user interfaces have been used in non-industrial areas for many years, they have only been used in industrial applications since the beginning of the Industry 4.0 movement. However, commercially available solutions do not yet have the intuitive operation that customers from non-industrial sectors are accustomed to. In this work, we present a proof-of-concept development that aims to create an intuitive web-based user interface for displaying robot movements. The robot is displayed in a WebGL-based visualization, which also allows user interaction. The user interface is created purely from open standard web technologies so that it works without plugins and is immediately usable in all modern browsers.