A Sensor Based Approach For Robot Programming

In this paper an approach is proposed for acquiring location data for robot programming without using the robot itself as a digitizer. It is based on using a non-contact opto-electronic position measurement sensor to register the location data of a suitable target. The target will be positioned appropriately relative to the object of interest by the programmer. This process yields a sequence of locations for the hand-held target from which the desired tool locations relative to the object could be computed. Furthermore, as the sensor used is very fast, it allows a sampling rate that is adequate for capturing data on the trajectory of the hand-held target for subsequent programming of the robot to produce that same trajectory. Finally, the same sensor could be used to monitor the actual robot locations and/or trajectory and to automatically modify the program data to produce the best performance with respect to the data captured. The paper is organized as follows. First, various approaches to robot programming are briefly discussed and their various advantages and disadvantages are highlighted. Second, the approach proposed is presented. Third, implementation details and preliminary experimental results of various tests using the Selspot II system and a PUMA-560 robot are given. Finally, conclusions and an outline of work in progress are given.