Robotic software frameworks and software component models in the development of automated handling of individual natural fibers

Abstract

Automated micro- and nanohandling systems are highly dependent on the robustness and quality of their control software. However, aspects related to software are rarely discussed in this context. This paper describes how mature robotic software frameworks and software component models can be applied on the software development of micro- and nanohandling applications. The applicability of the selected approach is demonstrated by developing component-based software that relies on Robotic Construction Kit, which is a mature robotic software framework. The demonstration concentrates on image-based pick-and-place procedures for the manipulation of individual natural fibers. The developed procedures are a part of an effort to develop a fully automated high throughput instrument for analyzing mechanical properties at a fiber level. The pick-and-place sequences are divided into reusable unit operations that can be utilized to implement different tasks which the instrument must perform. Two different demonstrations: pick and place, and coordinated fiber lifting are presented. The applicability of the selected software development approach is evaluated with two criteria: the execution time and the success rate of the demonstrated operations. The developed automated coordinated fiber lifting sequence is compared against its teleoperated counterpart. The success rates were 80 and 82.5 %, respectively for teleoperated and automated sequences. The execution time of automated sequence was 51.5 s on average. The teleoperated reference experiment had significantly longer execution time, being 131 s on average.