Context-Sensitive Online Programming for a Robotic Manipulator Arm

The increasing intelligence of sensor guided industrial robots enable them to overtake more and more applicational tasks. Despite that, there always will be left a certain spectrum of handling tasks, that still have to be performed by a human operator controlling a manipulating arm - due to complexity and safety reasons. Unfortunately manual positioning of manipulators is generally a permanent source for operational faults, accidents and high costs. To overcome the given problem a hybrid control system architecture is proposed that allows: manual arm control, program execution and the smooth switch among both operational modes at any time. As key component a Context-Sensitive Online Program Generator is specified, developed and implemented. The validity of the chosen approach and its possibilities are proven in a 3D-graphical simulation incorporating all high-level control modules and the operator interface. The applicational requirements for the control system architecture are exempla rily taken from a heavy duty handling task in coal mining.