Outline of the Open Robot Interface for the network design.

Stuja, Kemajl ; Stopper, Markus ; Katalinic, Branko 等

Abstract: In the last few years, industrial robots became standard machines in automation industry. Thanks to easy programmable features, different ranges of manipulators sizes and end effectors, advanced sensors and control units technology, the robot exalts the flexibility of production systems. Industrial robots today are doing not only handling of parts as several years ago, but they are performing mechanical tasks, like milling, finishing etc. As these tasks are very complex for different calculations and optimizations, automatically it appears a need of communication between control units of robots and PC-Workstations. In age of these changes in Japan at 1999 from Japan Robot Association (JARA)--in order to adjust the robots network operation--a project called ORiN--Open Robot Interface for the network was started. This paper outlines the design of this robot interoperability architecture.

Key words industrial robot network standardization, robot controller network interface, open robot interface architecture, industrial software standards

1. INTRODUCTION

Open Robot Interface for the network (ORiN) has the main objective to introduce the networked robots into manufacturing systems. In other words ORiN is a system respectively architecture for standardizing communications between personal computers and robot controllers. The method of accessing robot controllers conventionally differs from robot manufacturer to robot manufacturer. By standardizing the access, it enables the users of PC's with the same software user interface to exchange data with robot controllers for different manufacturers.

This will provide the following advantages:

* uniform data exchange is possible on PC irrespective of the robots manufacturer (Stopper et. all, 2000)

* various industrial application software can be developed by third parties

* low cost multi-vendor system development

* worldwide standardization through proposal to ISO

2. MEMBERS OF ORiN

The ORiN project is being conducted in the program "Standardization of Communications Interface for Open Robot used for such as a Manufacturing System" which is consigned to JARA--Japan Robot Association by New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) since August in 1999 with the chair Hideo Matsuka. Japan Robot Association consists of engineers and researchers from major Japanese robot manufactures, universities and other neutral institutions. Members of ORiN are the Robot manufacturers: FANUC Ltd., DENSO CORP., YASKAWA Electric Ltd., KAWASAKI HEAVY INDUSTRIES Ltd., MITSUBISHI Electric Co. and KOBE Steel Ltd. etc.

In the works and activities of the '99 International Robot Exhibitions open network interface development have participated the neutral organizations such as University of Tokyo and the observers like software houses, e.g. Fuji Software ABC Co. and several organizations (JARA, 2007).

3. APPLICATIONS OF ORiN

Open Robot Interface for the Network will exchange the following data among the different robot controllers:

* Production control system: Quantitative data analysis and TQC of the facilities

* Robot motion monitor & simulator: Tuning-up, Confirmation, Remote maintenance and Training (Stopper, 2005)

* Facility maintenance system: Mobile access to the field, rapid recovery and problem solving

* Production control and motion control: Remote operation control and synchronization

* File management on the robot controller: Automatic user data backup and automatic system program upgrade

* RAP (Robot Access Protocol): Remote maintenance using the internet technology (ABB, 2005b)

4. ECONOMIC BENEFITS FROM ORiN

Open Robot Interface for the network has the main objective to bring these economic benefits:

* increased competitiveness in manufacturing

* expansion of the robot market

* entry of software industry into robot market

* creation of the robot engineering industry

5. CONFIGURATIONS OF ORiN

Figure 1 describes the design of Open Robot Interface for the Network and the application design for verifying the specifications. As shown in the figure this concept consists of three layers:

* Kernel layer

* Provider layer

* Application layer

The engine of the Open Robot Interface is configured with the Robot Access Object (RAO) and the Robot Resource Definition (RRD). RAO of the kernel is basically middleware that provides a unified access method to robot data, based on Distributed Component Object Model (DCOM) technology. It exchanges data with the robot through the provider (communication section with the actual robot) created by the respective robot manufacturers.

RAO has the following features:

* Programming language neutral

* Protocol independence

* Network transparency

The RAO client application gets access (read/write) to the resources within the robot controller via the RAO engine interface. The engine provides common functions and the provider of the functions depends on the respective companies. This architecture resembles the OLE-DB technology of Microsoft, which provides a common program interface for various types of databases (ABB, 2005a). The RAO enables developing of application software, without being conscious of specification differences that may arise from different manufacturers or versions of industrial robots.

Robot Resource Definition (RRD) section represents data definition information that absorbs differences from manufacturer to manufacturer and robot to robot to simplify the internal structure of RAO. According to ORiN applications, using ORiN must be an "application not dependent on the difference of robot manufacturer or robot type". That means, "Standardization of a communication-interface between a personal computer and a robot controller."

[FIGURE 1 OMITTED]

The principal items are as follows:

* Name of arm

* Number of controlled axes

* Model axes number (parallel linkless type is same number as controlled axes)

To provide the structure with expandability, RRD adopts a descriptive format of XML (Extensible Markup Language) by further developing HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language). Since using the XML format for RDF-notation enables a commercial XML parser/renderer to read it, the application software can process RRD files of different manufacturers uniformly. In addition, adoption of the XML format makes it easy to distribute data over the World Wide Web in the future.

Application section describes the development of the "Robot Operation Display Application" for 3-D display of the respective robot models, and subsequently implemented 3-dimensional pattern data and RRD design. The "Robot Operation Display Application" graphically displays the present position of networked industrial robots on the WWW browser of a personal computer. This is realized by acquiring constantly changing information on the present position of the moving robot by continually accessing RAO (robot controllers supporting "RAO" can be used in the future for more effective utilization of assets), then converting the information described in RRD into appropriate information for displaying. To express such 3-D pattern data (3-D Model), VRML 2.0 has been adopted. The VRML 2.0 format complies with the ISO standard, which is an effective data format for expressing 3-dimensional space on the browser.

6. CONCLUSION

Open Robot Interface for the Network (ORiN) was verified and practically implemented at '99 International Robot Exhibition in Tokyo. To enable that, joint demonstrations were held by 13 companies. Robot operations were displayed in real-time and in 3-dimensional graphics at the booth of Japan Robot Association and at the site of ISR lectures. The display included robot demonstrations at the exhibition and robot operations in Kobe via an ISDN line. In addition, data forwarded by the controller was processed and displayed to show the operating state of the equipment through the plant. Development of ORiN is still in progress up to now and takes into account current technologies.

7. REFERENCES

ABB (2005a). Robot Application Builder--FlexPendant SDK Users Guide, ABB Automation Technologies, Robotics, 3HAC 024914-00, RobotWare v5.07, Molndal, Sweden

ABB (2005b). Robot Application Builder--PC SDK Users Guide, ABB Automation Technologies AB, Robotics, 3HAC 024913-001, RobotWare v5.07, Molndal, Sweden

JARA--Japan Robot Association (2007). Available from: http://www.jara.jp Accessed: 2007-07-06

Stopper, M. (2005). Virtual Engineering for Industrial Robotic Work Cells, 4th Asian Conference on Industrial Automation and Robotics, ISBN 974-8208-58-3, Bangkok, Thailand

Stopper, M.; Panzirsch, R.; Angerer, B. (2000). Distribution Concept for the Open Robot Interface (ORI) Architecture, Proceedings of the 9th International RAAD Workshop, ISBN 86-435-0324-X, Maribor, Slovenia