An Intuitive and Efficient Framework for Programming Robotic Systems

The implementation of a flexible and intuitive programming system is a basic requirement for the efficient usage of robotic applications in real industrial environments. This paper focuses on the development and implementation of a programming system that enables an industrial worker to program the robot without writing a single line of code. Therefore, the worker can compound the robot program by choosing different movement sequences out of a list of operations. By using the ISA88 standard of the process industry, the considered application can be subdivided into smaller units that only have to be parameterized. Thus, the worker only has to be aware of the industrial workplace itself, but not of writing robot source code. Furthermore, we implemented a human-machine interface (HMI) on an industrial computer that is connected to the robot controller via TCP/IP. The evaluation shows that our programming system is characterized by a great versatility for robotic applications in real industrial environments.