Enhanced Performance Real-Time Industrial Robot Programming by Demonstration using Stereoscopic Vision and an IMU sensor

Abstract

Nowadays, industrial robots are still commonly programmed using essentially off-line tools, such as is the case of structured languages or simulated environments. This is a very time-consuming process, which necessarily requires the presence of an experienced programmer with technical knowledge of the set-up to be used, as well as a concept and a complete definition of the details associated with the operations. Moreover, considering some industrial applications such as coating, painting, and polishing, which commonly require the presence of highly skilled shop floor operators, the translation of this human craftsmanship into robot language using the available programming tools is still a very difficult task. In this regard, this paper presents a programming by demonstration solution, that allows a skilled shop floor operator to directly teach the industrial robot. The proposed system is based on the 6D Mimic innovative solution, endowed with an IMU sensor as to enable the system to tolerate temporary occlusions of the 6D Marker. Results show that, in the event of an occlusion, a reliable and highly accurate pose estimation is achieved using the IMU data. Furthermore, the selected IMU was a low-cost model, to not severely increase the 6D Mimic cost, despite lowering the quality of the readings. Even in these conditions, the developed algorithm was able to produce high-quality estimations during short time occlusions.