Human/Robot Multi-initiative Setups for Assembly Cells

摘要

New products and small batch production entail a disproportionate amount of time is spent setting up auto- mated assembly tasks. We have designed and implemented an automation tool to radically reduce this time. The setup for assembly automation involves: assembly planning, fixture- tool selection and positioning as well as part loading. This automation tool provides the robot with the ability to provide a human operator with precise and convenient instructions to follow through augmented reality, while at the same time allowing the robot to read information supplied by the human operator's actions. In this way, a complex setup task can be collaboratively executed, while allowing both the robot and the human to do what each does best. Keywords-Augmented Reality (AR), setup for assembly au- tomation, Human-Robot Interaction (HRI), Robot-Human In- teraction (RHI), active vision, multi-initiative tasks. In this paper, a concept for a new tool allowing for semi- automated multi-initiative setups is presented. This concept should provide a basis for improving the existing setup- processes by combining the precision of the robot with the judgment of a human operator. The remainder of this paper is structured as follows: Section II discusses our approach to augmented reality applied to setups for robotic assembly. Section III illustrates the design and implementation of a new augmented reality tool, while section IV describes its general applications. Section V details two applications including guiding setups for robotic assemblies and part loading. Finally, sections VI and VII discuss future work and offer our conclusions.