The latest industrial revolution, denoted as Industry 4.0, is encouraging the integration of intelligent production systems and advanced information technologies. In this scenario, the Mixed Reality devices are gaining momentum due to the possibility of improving the operator working experience by adding holographic information to the objects of the real environment where he operates. This innovative technology offers new possibilities for what concerns the human-robot interaction, allowing to introduce new methodologies through which industrial robots can be programmed, even remotely. In this Thesis a novel holographic interface that allows the operator to program the robot path as equivalent holographic teaching by showing procedure, is proposed. The holographic content is projected in the real user environment through a MR headset, Microsoft HoloLens, that is worn by the operator. To achieve these objectives, first, the real robot structure (ABB IRB 140) is reproduced holographically, to obtain a virtual copy of the real manipulator. Secondly, the holographic robot is endowed with the same motion capabilities of the real one. Then, through the holographic interface, the user can specify the robot path by generating and editing through hand-gestures an arbitrary number of way-points, that the robot end-effector has to cover. The selected way-points are converted into the corresponding robot join angles through the inverse kinematic procedure. Then, these variables are communicated in real-time to the robot controller, through a TCP/IP communication protocol that allows the HoloLens and the real robot to exchange data. Exploiting the ABB RobotStudio software, the robot path is programmed in joint-space and communicated back to HoloLens. Hence, it can be previewed by the user. The performances of this holographic interface are evaluated according to a usability study, where 20 participants were asked to program the robot. The results of this study showed the potentiality of this innovative methodology that provides an intuitive way to program industrial robots. Conversely, some users noticed that wearing HoloLens could be uncomfortable, especially after prolonged usage.
L'ultima rivoluzione industriale, Industria 4.0, sta stimolando l'integrazione di sistemi di produzione intelligenti e tecnologie informatiche avanzate. In questo scenario, i dispositivi di Realtà Mista si stanno affermando, per migliorare l'esperienza lavorativa dell'operatore includendo informazioni olografiche agli oggetti dell'ambiente in cui lavora. Questa tecnologia innovativa offre nuove possibilità riguardo l'interazione uomo-robot, introducendo nuove metodologie per la programmazione dei robot industriali, anche da remoto. In questa tesi è proposta una interfaccia olografica che consente all'operatore di programmare il percorso del robot come equivalente olografico di "teaching by showing". Il dispositivo di RM, Microsoft Hololens, indossato dall’utente proietta nel suo ambiente degli ologrammi. Per conseguire questi obiettivi, inizialmente, è stata riprodotta la struttura del robot (ABB IRB 140) ottenendone una sua copia virtuale. Dopodiché, il robot olografico è stato dotato delle stesse capacità di movimento di quello reale. Quindi, attraverso l'interfaccia, l'utente può specificare il percorso del robot generando e modificando con comandi gestuali un numero arbitrario di waypoint, che l’organo terminale deve raggiungere. I waypoint selezionati sono convertiti nei relativi angoli di giunto attraverso l'applicazione della cinematica inversa. Questi valori vengono comunicati in tempo reale al controllore del robot, attraverso un protocollo di comunicazione TCP/IP che permette di scambiare dati tra HoloLens e manipolatore. Il software ABB RobotStudio permette di programmare il percorso del robot nello spazio dei giunti inviandolo alle HoloLens. Esso può essere visualizzato in anteprima dall'utente. Le prestazioni dell’interfaccia olografica sono state valutate grazie a uno studio di usabilità, dove a 20 partecipanti è stato chiesto di programmare il robot. I risultati di questo studio hanno mostrato le potenzialità di questa metodologia che permette di programmare i robot industriali in modo intuitivo. Di contro, alcuni utenti hanno notato che indossare HoloLens risulterebbe scomodo, specialmente dopo un uso prolungato.
Robot manipulator programming through mixed reality
VISMARA, MATTEO
2018/2019
Abstract
The latest industrial revolution, denoted as Industry 4.0, is encouraging the integration of intelligent production systems and advanced information technologies. In this scenario, the Mixed Reality devices are gaining momentum due to the possibility of improving the operator working experience by adding holographic information to the objects of the real environment where he operates. This innovative technology offers new possibilities for what concerns the human-robot interaction, allowing to introduce new methodologies through which industrial robots can be programmed, even remotely. In this Thesis a novel holographic interface that allows the operator to program the robot path as equivalent holographic teaching by showing procedure, is proposed. The holographic content is projected in the real user environment through a MR headset, Microsoft HoloLens, that is worn by the operator. To achieve these objectives, first, the real robot structure (ABB IRB 140) is reproduced holographically, to obtain a virtual copy of the real manipulator. Secondly, the holographic robot is endowed with the same motion capabilities of the real one. Then, through the holographic interface, the user can specify the robot path by generating and editing through hand-gestures an arbitrary number of way-points, that the robot end-effector has to cover. The selected way-points are converted into the corresponding robot join angles through the inverse kinematic procedure. Then, these variables are communicated in real-time to the robot controller, through a TCP/IP communication protocol that allows the HoloLens and the real robot to exchange data. Exploiting the ABB RobotStudio software, the robot path is programmed in joint-space and communicated back to HoloLens. Hence, it can be previewed by the user. The performances of this holographic interface are evaluated according to a usability study, where 20 participants were asked to program the robot. The results of this study showed the potentiality of this innovative methodology that provides an intuitive way to program industrial robots. Conversely, some users noticed that wearing HoloLens could be uncomfortable, especially after prolonged usage.| File | Dimensione | Formato | |
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2019_07_Vismara_Matteo.pdf
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https://hdl.handle.net/10589/148581