A Study on the Methodology for Creating Manuals Using Functional Decomposition Trees

Case Studies and Analysis of the Application of Non-experts Collaborative Robots to Implementation Tasks

Abstract

To reduce the cost of introducing collaborative robots, we investigate tablet-based electronic manuals that enable non-experts (robot users) to introduce robots themselves. Since the creation of such manuals is time consuming, to promote the use of robots, a methodology is needed that allows experts (robot manufacturers) to create manuals for non-experts, rather than having knowledge engineers continuously create manuals for each individual robot. In this study, we aimed to establish a methodology for creating manuals for non-experts and conducted a basic study of the elements necessary for a manual, using an introductory manual for a robot as a model. We conducted several evaluation experiments in which non-experts actually assembled a collaborative robot using our prototype manual, and compared and discussed how the success rate of the work changed depending on changes in the manual. For example, we found that the parameters that directly express the success of a task and the tasks involved should be explained in the manual from different perspectives, based on the creation of a manual for teaching procedures for a collaborative robot that must keep errors to a few millimetres.