The Design of General Off-Line Graphical Robot Programming System

Background: The robot programming has attracted widespread attention in decades. One of the key challenges for industrial robot is how to set up and manage complex robot programming tasks. The graphical interface is utilized to speed up the development of a solution for an industrial robot in recent years. Objective: The paper concentrates on the overall design of off-line graphical robot programming system and explains how each part of the system works with related recent patents. Methods: In this study, a typical graphical interface is deployed for manipulator. We can create a complex task by dragging symbols and connecting them. The generated task is interpreted through specific code interpreter and simulated in a control system. The simulated results are forwarded to virtual board controller which handles management of separate boards and downloading of tasks. Results: The overall graphical programming system has improved the productivity on SIASUN manipulator and related recent patents are introduced. Conclusions: Using graphical interface is less error-prone and more flexible for the entire robot programming system. In consideration of robot manufacturers with diverse design, the abstraction of common robot behaviors and logical structure represented with markup language could cause better compatibility. For further progress, more common behaviors and better algorithms should be included in the whole system.