An open architecture for sensory feedback control of a dual-arm industrial robotic cell

Purpose – To present an open architecture for real-time sensory feedback control of a dual-arm industrial robotic cell. The setup is composed of two industrial robot manipulators equipped with force/torque sensors and pneumatic grippers, a vision system and a belt conveyor. Design/methodology/approach – The original industrial robot controllers have been replaced by a single PC with software running under a real-time variant of the Linux operative system. Findings – The new control architecture allows advanced control schemes to be developed and tested for the single robots and for the dual-arm robotic cell, including force control and visual servoing tasks. Originality/value – An advanced user interface and a simulation environment have been developed, which permit fast, safe and reliable prototyping of planning and control algorithms.