Remote operation of industrielle robotsystemer

Abstract

Since during the last few years, industrial robots systems had been wider introduced in smalland medium sized enterprises (SMEs) than traditionally, inexpensive and immediate support for the systems has to be provided.

The purpose of this project is to investigate applicability of cognitive communication in industrial robot systems as an aid to provide the support. In the systems based on cognitive communication, particular emphasis is placed on utilizing human cognitive processes — the mental processes by which humans acquire and comprehend information about surrounding everyday world as well as gain knowledge and make decisions. The communication is,therefore, the most natural method to provide a robotic operator with large amount of tele-presence data that is expected to occur in remote assistance of industrial robot systems.

The investigation is subdivided into following main sections:

1. Applications of Industrial Robot Systems – an introductory literature study about present-day robotic solutions and challenges encountered in specific applications is presented.

2. Fundamental Assumptions of the System – for the purposes of the project the local and remote industrial robot systems together with all their subcomponents are defined.

3. Information as Meaningful Data – the information that are needed in remote operation of industrial robot systems are gathered and categorized.

4. Data Acquisition – an introductory literature study about present-day sensory solutions that appear to be applicable in the system is presented. Subsequently an investigation is performed to determine how previously categorized robotic information can be acquired by means of the sensors.

5. Cognitive Neuroscience and Human Interface – human perceptual and mental processes are discussed. Hence in subsequent part the description of human-machine interface that is applied in the system can be defined with regard to both psychological and technical aspects.

6. Experimental Investigation – the description of system that was developed in order to practically investigate application of cognitive communication in industrial robot systemsis presented. Subsequently, with an aid of the system experiments are undertaken to investigate capabilities of cognitive vision and auditory communication with remote operator.

The results from the experimental investigation confirm that application of cognitive communication is an adequate solution to provide the support to industrial robot systems.Furthermore, the capabilities of cognitive communication appear to be much greater than it was previously expected. Most likely it can be successfully applied in any multi-variable system requiring human supervisory.