Call2 Monitoring EXECELL

Public Summary Month 7/2012

Fri, 27 Jul 2012 10:19:51 GMT

As this is the last report of the EXECELL experiment we present the successful completion of the project. In this reporting period we finished Task 8 and Task 9, thus finally reaching the last milestone M3.

In Task 8 we analyzed the system behavior and identified the limitations of the detection capabilities of the sensor system by using various test criteria elaborated on basis of the Technical Report IEC 61496-4. So, the evaluation of the system represents first insights regarding a future safety certification and its feasibility. Beside the analysis of the response time, especially the examination of object properties and their influences to the detection capabilities were involved.

Task 9 handles the implementation and execution of the use cases defined in Task 2. Here, the focus was on using both safety space calculation approaches, the global one and the dynamic one.

Public Summary Month 5/2012

Fri, 01 Jun 2012 12:04:09 GMT

The main task in this reporting period was the preparation and exhibition of the EXECELL project at hall B3, booth 510 of the Fraunhofer IFF at the 5^th International Trade Fair for Automation and Mechatronics AUTOMATICA from 05/22 – 05/25/2012 in Munich (see Figure 1).

Therefore we spend a lot of time for debugging and testing the overall system and further implemented two scenarios. The first one comprises an infinite loop of three movements of the KUKA Lightweight robot while the safety space is dynamically adapted all the time. Before the motion of the robot we additionally visualized on the one hand its intended moving direction and on the other hand the destination position accordingly. The second scenario was quite more complex. Here, we presented human-robot cooperation by depositing and detecting an object in a transfer-station and further grasping and placing it to a predefined position on the workbench. All time the safety space was dynamically adapted and additional information for guiding the operator was displayed.

Concerning Task 8 we completed the elaboration of test criteria and purchased relevant test pieces of different sizes and colors. On basis of this we started the evaluation of the system behavior, which is still in progress.

Figure 1: EXECELL project at Fraunhofer IFF booth at AUTOMATICA.

Public Summary Month 3/2012

Tue, 03 Apr 2012 09:24:59 GMT

In the end of March the project participants had a meeting at the Fraunhofer IFF in Magdeburg to present the current state of the experiment. Here, we implemented a simple pick and place scenario to demonstrate the functionality of the overall system under operating conditions.

Concerning Task 6, the focus was on integrating the developed software components into a working complete system. Therefore, from the beginning we capsuled the algorithms into services to offer the opportunity of individually use and compose them with other existing services. This enables us to easily build up the complete software system. Another part of Task 6 concerns the calibration of robot and sensor system to a common coordinate system. At first we calibrated the sensor system by using a single chessboard pattern to measure the poses of the surrounding cameras. The projector’s pose is determined by projecting specified patterns on a defined projection plane, which are detected by the calibrated cameras. For calibrating the robot we developed a semi-automatically method. Here, we project single small dots to the expected axis positions of the robot and refine its estimated pose iteratively.

In Task 7 the project participant KUKA is still processing the work of adapting their path planning algorithms. Here, we used the sensor system as a light section sensor to acquire a 3-dimensional reconstruction of the scene, which will be further used to calculate collision free paths of the robot.

Public Summary Month 1/2012

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 13:38:13 GMT

At the end of this month the project participants have finished both the processing of Task 4 and Task 5. Furthermore, in this reporting period we started the work on Task 6 to simultaneously test the developed algorithms under operating conditions.

Besides the receiving of the current robot’s state, we also enabled the system to control the robot by usage of FRI (Fast Research Interface). Furthermore, we finished the extension of algorithms for 3D safety volume generation and collision test. Here, we adapted and implemented algorithms to generate the safety spaces in two ways. On the one hand, the safety space can be generated in order to comprise all positions of the robot, moving on a predefined trajectory. On the other hand, the safety space is dynamically adapted to the current robot state at any time. In figure 1 are both the online and offline approach depicted.

Figure 1: a) –c) Dynamic generation of the safety space by using the current robot state.
d) Offline safety space generation on the basis of a predefined trajectory.

Public Summary Month 11/2011

Fri, 25 Nov 2011 14:44:45 GMT

In the current reporting period the project participants started in October with the processing of Task 4 and Task 5. At this time we finished a major objective of Task 4 by generating a virtual physical model of the KUKA LWR and by implementing main components of the interface between the LWR control and the software system. In Task 5 we are further working on the optimization and adaption of the real-time algorithms used on the one hand to calculate safety volumes and on the other hand to detect potential collisions.

Public Summary Month 9/2011

Thu, 13 Oct 2011 08:59:20 GMT

In the current reporting period we finished Task 1, Task 2 and Task 3. So, regarding to Task 1, we developed a concept for integration of sensor-system and the KUKA LWR wherein we have focused on communication and software interfaces. We have described a concept of an experimental technical framework, analyzed available communication interfaces and discussed their fitness for the individual communication tasks.

In Task 2 the project participants identified three different approaches to calculate the robot workspace which has to be supervised. Additionally we worked out typical use cases and identified those use cases which pose interesting challenges for the EXECELL system.

In Task 3 we finished the workspace setup by mounting required sensors like cameras and projector, mirror and additional equipment on the carrier and bring them into service. The collaborative workbench equipped with the KUKA LWR was placed under the carrier and thus completing the setup as seen in Figure 1.

Figure 1: Entire workspace setup consisting of system carrier, 4 cameras, projector and mirror, workbench with KUKA LWR and integrated controller, and additional hardware equipment.

Public Summary Month 7/2011

Tue, 09 Aug 2011 11:11:00 GMT

The EXECELL project started with a kick-off meeting of both participants, KUKA and Fraunhofer Institute for Factory Operation and Automation (IFF), at the IFF in Magdeburg. The meeting was used to clarify and define the technical specifications and interface definitions of the system, which are currently being further developed and refined in close-cooperation between the project participants. Furthermore, the project participant KUKA has identified use cases, which are derived from real industrial applications. On basis of that it has begun to identify potential failure modes and analyzing their effects. As seen in Figure 1, we also have begun to set up the workspace by building up a sensor system carrier. Furthermore, we mounted the KUKA LWR 4+ on a moveable workbench, as depicted in Figure 2.

Figure 1: senor-system carrier

Figure 2: KUKA LWR 4+ mounted on moveable workbench with integrated robot controller