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2011
Conference Paper
Titel
Crosslinking industrial automation and service robotics by means of realtime fieldbusses
Abstract
A service robot is a robot to perform tasks for humans, usually not stationary, but rather autonomous regarding motion and navigation. Usually, any kind of manipulation is performed while there is a differentiation between domestic and industrial service robots. Just as well as automation in general, service robots make use of fieldbusses in order to reduce cabling effort. Nevertheless, there is an ongoing trend towards Ethernet-based fieldbusses employing already existing network devices to connect a high number of participating components. But there are still a number of open issues. A desired, but not yet found technology would have to combine these aspects: - Easy and fast reconfiguration, - High reliability in research environment, - Integration of high variety of devices (e.g. robots, PLCs, PC-based control, advanced sensors, etc.), - Realtime capabilities, - Plug-and-play. All these items are necessary in order to provide and integrate the technological state-of-the-art with minimal effort. Thus, the actual problems when doing research in robotics can be addressed. In recent projects, there are several occasions addressing these aspects. The two most important ones are the communication of mobile machines with their control stations and the integration of several devices within one machine. There, existing technologies and standards are applied as far as possible, but there is no such system which can solve all of the requirements out of the box.