Robot controller architecture for user friendly application deployment

Abstract

In this work an architecture for robotic control is proposed which divides the robot controller system into a manipulator specific and an application specific part. All manipulator specific controller functionality - especially power supply, direct/inverse kinematics, and safety features - remain on the robot (motion) controller, all application specific peripheries and software are bundled into an application module. Such applications can be developed independently of the concrete manipulator they are to be used. The end-user is able to install and use the application by attaching the application module to his (compatible) robot controller, without the need to install any additional hard- or software in the robot controller and without expertise in robot programming. This allows a more versatile deployment of robots, e.g. for small businesses. Validation of the proposed architecture is provided by means of a force control application, turning a standard six degree of freedom industrial manipulator into a spatial path specification device for mechanism design.