The development of an augmented reality robot programming application

Industrial robots have been traditionally programmed using the teaching pendant, while offline programming methods are getting increasingly popular in recent years. Although the above two methods are widely-used in the industry, they both have certain disadvantages. For instance, the teaching pendant method requires shutting down the production line during the programming process, while offline programming method requires 3D CAD models of both the robot and the workpiece. Unfortunately, it is not always possible to have the CAD models of workpiece, especially in the MRO (maintenance, repair and overhaul) sector where objects have undergone different damages. In this research, a new augmented reality (AR) application which alleviates the aforementioned problems was developed for robot programming purposes based on commercial AR software. The production line does not need to be stopped, and 3D models of the workpiece are also not required. Users can see the actual object and the virtual robot in an AR environment by wearing wearable AR devices such as Microsoft Hololens. The virtual robot will then be programmed to reach the target points on the actual workpiece, while avoiding collisions or singularities. The application is created using commercially available AR software, with the addition of JavaScript code. The use of commercially available software allows an easier sharing and widespread adoption of the application. Research questions to be answered in this project include how robot model can be manipulated in AR environment, how AR technology can be used to create robot codes, and how accuracy can be improved. The research output is an AR robot programming application which is developed using only standard commercial software, which is user friendly and can be downloaded by users around the world.