TOWARDS SHOP FLOOR HARDWARE RECONFIGURATION FOR INDUSTRIAL COLLABORATIVE ROBOTS

Abstract

In this paper we propose a roadmap for hardware reconfiguration of industrial collaborative robots. As a flexible resource, the collaborative robot will often need transitioning to a new task. Our goal is, that this transitioning should be done by the shop floor operators, not highly specialized engineers. The hard- ware reconfiguration framework adopts a modular architecture for the collabo- rative robot which dictates a clear segmentation of the robot into well-defined exchangeable modules. Four main objectives for the hardware reconfiguration framework; 1) Modular architecture, 2) Module Selection, 3) Module Exchange, and 4) Module utilization. Each objective is described and proposed solutions are presented along with related research topics.