Integrated architecture for industrial robot programming and control

As robot control systems are traditionally closed, it is difficult to add supplementary intelligence. Accordingly, as based on a new notion of user views, a layered system architecture is proposed. Bearing in mind such industrial demands as computing efficiency and simple factory-floor operation, the control layers are parameterized by means of functional operators consisting of pieces of compiled code that can be passed as parameters between the layers. The required interplay between application-specific programs and built-in motion control is thereby efficiently accomplished. The results from experimental evaluation and several case studies suggest the architecture to be very useful also in an industrial context. ©1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.