A complete computational model for industrial robot programming is presented. There are two main objectives in realizing this model. The first is to allow shop floor production engineers (application programmers) to create and modify sensor-based robot programs. The proposed iconic user interface provides a non-textual programming mechanism. The icons, which represent individual robot skills, are linked and parameterized to modify the behaviour of the skills. Use of a control flow mechanism, as opposed to data flow, makes the description of the robot operation as a set of skills immediately obvious. Linking the skill icons requires only a few control constructs which makes the interface usable on the shop floor. This system provides a mechanism for online creation and debugging of sensor-based robot operations. The second objective is to enable the system programmer to create and maintain the robot skills using consistent and facilitated methods. This is the underlying software architecture that makes the iconic shop floor interface possible. It is an object-based method that provides functional abstraction of the sensors and machines. The objects include skills, sensor drivers, logical sensors, and machine drivers. The skills are defined in the form of templates that completely specify a sensor-based robot action. Other significant results ensue from the two listed above, for example, the possibility of standardization in robot programming at the skill level. The ability to separate the responsibilities of individuals with different capabilities is another objective that has the side effect of making robot systems development manageable. The computational model presented is called "SKills-Oriented Robot Programming (SKORP)." In this model the skills execute exclusive of each other and therefore the computation for each skill can be represented independently. Skills are designed and documented using realtime design tools from the multiactivity paradigm. The SKORP model provides consistent and usable design methods for describing computation in embedded systems. These design tools are used by the system programmer to guarantee the realtime interaction of the software modules that compose a skill. This research is directed toward industrial robotics in traditional and non-traditional habitats, but the model presented is equally applicable to any numerically controlled machine that either requires sensors or interacts with the environment in a complex way.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:uottawa.ca/oai:ruor.uottawa.ca:10393/10141 |
| Date | January 1995 |
| Creators | Archibald, Colin C. |
| Contributors | Petriu, Emil, |
| Publisher | University of Ottawa (Canada) |
| Source Sets | Université d’Ottawa |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | 235 p. |
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