U-Pendant: A universal teach pendant for serial robots based on ROS

Abstract

Many corporations have produced various teach pendants. However, most of these products are exclusive in terms of communication protocols and robot programming languages. Therefore, programs and teach pendant are usually not exchangeable between robots. To tackle this problem, we present U-Pendant, an open source universal teach pendant for serial robots based on Robot Operating System (ROS), a meta-operating system with a number of robotic applications shared online, and Yet Another Robot Controller (YARC), a universal kinematic controller for serial robots. We design and implement essential functionality and interactivity of teach pendants on U-Pendant. Several demonstrations are made to show the universality and functional superiority of U-Pendant. The source code and hardware design have been made publicly accessible for the community.