Spatial augmented reality interface for teaching operators and coordinate their tasks with robotic platforms
Main motivations:
- Full automation of tasks involving complex assembly operations is still not cost-effective with the current level of technology. Robotic systems excel at precision and repeatability but still lack the level of cognition required to deal with complex operations that involve the handing of parts with behavior that is difficult to model (flexible parts) or manipulate (small parts or assembly of components into tight or hard to reach places).
- As such, collaborative workstations allow the combination of the adaptability and dexterity of a human operator with the repeatability and accuracy of a robotic platform, making the assembly lines more flexible, productive and cost-effective.
Main features:
- The spatial augmented reality system provides an immersive and intuitive 3D interface for teaching operators and coordinate their tasks with robotic systems. These capabilities are critical for the optimization and smooth operation of collaborative assembly workstations. Especially when implementing workstations that are equipped with generic tools for allowing them to assemble a wide range of products in order to quickly adapt their production according to the market demand (avoiding the stockpiling of products in low demand and the shortage of products in high demand).
- The system starts by projecting an optimized layout of the parts (seen in figure 1) that ensures that both the robotic system and operator can work in parallel without disturbing each other while also minimizing their movements throughout the assembly process. This capability avoids the construction of fixtures to hold and align the parts that the robot will need to pick, while also significantly simplifying the programing of the robotic systems, because the placement of the parts in predefined positions allows off-line definition of the robot motions using point-to-point programming (which avoids complex and error prone tasks such as object recognition, grasp estimation and collision free motion planning for the robotic arm).
- The assembly process is controlled by the operator using the projected interface displayed in the lower right corner of figure 1 and 2 and showed in operations in this video . It contains buttons to move the assembly process forwards and backwards along with a concise text and video explaining what the robot and operator should be doing at a given assembly stage.
- For making the system more intuitive to use, 3D spatial information extracted from CAD models is also projected into the workstation. Namely, the work zones, highlighted in green for the operator tasks and in blinking red for the robot operations, along with a projection outline on which parts should be picked and where they should be assembled within those work regions.
- The dynamic 3D information provided by the projection mapping system allows the operator to quickly see what he should be doing and where he should be working. Moreover, the display of the work zones of the robotic system provides useful information to the operator for avoiding collisions with the robot.
More information available at:
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For suggestions of new features and use cases, please use this form:
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This research is part of a project that has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 723658. This video reflects only the author’s view and the European Commission is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information it contains.
