Using Augmented Reality for Robot Programming by Volume Sweeping

Abstract

Nowadays industrial robots are used widely in factories. A robot programming method in which everyone can easily teach robots ”good” motions is demanded. For this purpose, our group proposed a robot programming method that uses manual volume sweeping by operators and automatic motion planning to generate motion plans with short cycle times. A swept volume is the space through which robots have passed without collision. Therefore, it is movable space of robots. In this paper, we proposed using augmented reality in this programming method by volume sweeping. We constructed a system in which an operator can perceive obtained swept volumes and generated paths by augmented reality. Teaching experiments were performed to evaluate the performance of this system. As a result, it was showed that non-skilled operators can make robots move in shorter time than teaching/playback by direct teaching.