Development and implementation of skill library for industrial robots

Abstract

Robotic applications are being demanded more by the general industry as time passes. More complex tasks are required to be performed by robots. Demand on more flexible robotic applications is on the rise as well as the demand for easy-to-program robotic systems. An interesting problem arises from these demands. While the complexity of tasks rises, the complexity regarding the programming of a robotic system rises as well, which hinders the ease of programming. Skill-based robotic programming is a widely researched area trying to solve this problem.

The aim of this thesis is to develop and implement a skill library for industrial robots. A skill model was developed for the purpose of constructing the skills in the library. A theoretical part of this thesis examines robot programming, the state-of-the-art skill-based robotic applications, the basic concepts of the Unified Model Language, and the Robot Operating System. After this the skill library for industrial robots is introduced along with an introduction to the general skill model used to construct the skills in the skill library. A selection of specific skills from the skill library is then introduced along with the experimentation of the selected skills.

The skill library and the introduced skill model were found to be a practical approach to skill-level robot programming. The developed skill library displays potential for practical applications, which was verified through the experiments in this thesis. The developed skill library can be used as a solid base for further research on the topic.