Physics-based simulation for manual robot guidance—An eRobotics approach

Abstract

Manual robot guidance is an intuitive approach to teach robots with human's skills in the loop. It is particularly useful to manufacturers because of its high flexibility and low programming effort. However, manual robot guidance requires compliance control that is generally not available in position-controlled industrial robots. We address this issue from a simulation-driven approach. We systematically capture the interactive dynamic behavior of intelligent robot manipulators within physics-based virtual testbeds, regardless of the type of application. On this basis, we develop structures to equip and employ simulated robots with motion control capabilities that include soft physical interaction control driven in real-time with real external guidance forces. We then transfer the virtual compliant behavior of the simulated robots to their physical counterparts to enable manual guidance. The simulator provides assistance to operators through timely and insightful robot monitoring, as well as meaningful performance indexes. The testbed allows us to swiftly assess guidance within numerous interaction scenarios. Experimental case studies illustrate the practical usefulness of the symbiotic transition between 3D simulation and reality, as pursued by the eRobotics framework to address challenging issues in industrial automation.