"ROBOTICS IN AUSTRIA" State of the art report 2004 P. Kopacek
Institute for Handling Devices and Robotics, Vienna University of Technology Favoritenstrasse 9-11, A – 1040 Wien, Austria Tel.: +43.1.58801-31801 FAX: +43.1.58801-31899 e-mail:
[email protected]
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1 Robot statistics > 1@ In Austria approximately 20 companies dealing with robots or robotic systems are on the market. In 1989 robots to the value of 300 Mio ATS were installed new in our country and 872 industrial robots were in use in Austrian companies. At the end of 2002 this number increased to more than 3700. According to last estimations we should have currently more than 4000 industrial robots in use Therefore Austria is one of the countries with the highest growing rates according to long term estimations. An usual characteristic number for the "robotization" of the industry of a distinct country is the number of robots for 10000 industrial employees in this country. This number has increased from 3.4 in 1986 to approximately 48 today. One of the reasons for this untypical behavior in comparison with other countries is the structure of the Austrian industry. The Austrian industry is mainly dominated by small and medium sized companies. These companies started the introduction of industrial robots relatively late - approximately 1984. Today 21 % of the industrial robots are installed in small companies (less than 20 employees); 58 % in medium sized companies (less than 500 employees). The main application field of industrial robots in Austria is workpiece handling (22%), plastic moulding (21 %), welding (11%), assembly and disassembly (9%), tool handling (5%) and spot welding (only 4 %) as usual in other countries.. Remarkable growing rates are obtained for palletizing, jet cutting, and research and education applications. Today 104 industrial robots are installed on Universities and other research institutions. Furthermore approximately 150 mobile robots are in use mostly at Universities and Research Institutes. For coordination of robot activities in Austria the “Austrian Society for Automation and Robotics – ÖGART” was founded in 2002. This organisation represent Austria in various international organisations e. g. IFAC, IFR, IARP, …..
2 Robotic research As pointed out earlier the Austrian industry is mainly dominated by small and medium sized companies. Therefore robotic research on universities as well as research institutes have to be oriented mainly to industry. Because of the size of Austria these institutes are usually very small in comparison with other countries. We have two Technical Universities (Vienna and Graz) and some other Universities with Departments or research groups on robotics (University of Linz; University of Mining, Leoben; University of Innsbruck). At the University of Klagenfurt an Institute for “Servicerobots” is in discussion. Therefore robotic research is mainly concentrated on these Universities and on the Austrian Research Centres Seibersdorf (ARCS), Austrian Research Institute for Artificial Intelligence (OFAI) and the Research Institute for Symbolic Computation (RISC Linz) . The well known sentence "small is beautiful" is valid for robotic research in Austria. The average size of research groups in Austria is approximately 4. This requires high flexibility and motivation of the researchers. Research on robotics in Austria is financed by some funds (FWF – Austrian Science Fund, FFF – Austrian Industrial Research Promotion Fund, and by projects from the EU). The main task of the Austrian research should be the field of industrial applications. In 2
the Austrian industry a strong demand for flexible and modular "low cost" solution for robotic systems can be obtained. To transfer international knowledge in the Austrian industry some international scientific events have been or will be organized in Austria e.g. the IFAC Workshop Manufacturing Systems: Modelling, Management and Control, 1997, Vienna [6] IEEE International Conference on Intelligent Engineering Systems, 1998, Vienna [7] 7th International Workshop on Computer Aided Systems Theory and Technology – EUROCAST´99, September1999 [21] st 1 Intern. Workshop on Multi-Agent Systems in Production – MAS´99, December 1999 [22] 6th IFAC Symposium on "Robot Control" - SYROCCO'00, September 2000 [23] IMEKO / IFAC / IFIP Workshop on Advanced Robot Systems and Virtual Reality ISMCR'2000, September 2000 [24] RAAD 2001 10th International Workshop on ROBOTICS IN ALPE-ADRIA-DANUBE REGION Vienna, May 2001 [25] th 10 IFAC Symposium on “Information Control Problems in Manufacturing – INCOM 2001”, September 2001 [26] HUDEM’02 - 1st IARP Workshop on “Robots for Humanitarian Demining”, November 2002, Vienna.[27] HUDEM`03 – on site IARP Workshop, Prishtina, Kosovo; June 2003.[28] 2nd FIRA World Congress, 2003; Vienna, October 2003 in conjunction with the FIRA Robotsoccer World Cup.[29] CLAWAR/EURON Workshop on “Robots in Entertainment, Leisure and Hobby”, December 2004, Vienna.
2.1 Research at Universities In the following only some examples of University research activities in the field of robotics can be given. In the Department of Mechanical Engineering (Vienna University of Technology) the first Institute in Austria specialized in manipulators and robotics, the Institute of “Handling Devices and Robotics“, has been founded in January 1990. It is responsible for the education of students mainly from Mechanical Engineering in robotics and related fields such as microsystems for external sensors, assembly and disassembly oriented construction, software for robot control and mechatronics. The institute is dealing with the field of robot-systems and systems of handling devices, using both theoretical and practical approaches The theoreticaloriented investigations are related to kinematics and kinetics of industrial robots, and the use of advanced control algorithms. Further emphases are mobile robots, robots in the medicine and for entertainment, leisure and hobby, methods of pattern-recognition and application of methods of artificial intelligence as well as “Multi Agent Systems” > 8@ . The "Multi-Agent-System" is a new research activity at the Institute, because it has a high potential in application as service robots. Agents are autonomous and semi-autonomous hardware or software systems that perform tasks in complex, dynamically changing environment. MAS consists of a group of agents that can take specific roles within an organizational structure. Since several years scientists and technicians are working on the 3
development of MAS for the manufacturing and robotics, which is dealing with software agents in connection with distributed artificial intelligence. For the possible industrial application of MAS we apply the concepts in one case to the behavior for "soccer playing robots". To facilitate the construction of an own Robot Soccer Team the institute offers self developed robots in cooperation with the company ISS (Innovative Systems Solutions). Currently the third generation of these mini robots is in development.[31] While designing the hardware there was put special emphasis on implementing an open architecture. Therefore this robot can not only be deployed as a traditional soccer robot, but furthermore serve as a mobile platform forming the basis for various test applications of Multi Agent Systems. Two mostly applied concepts connected for MAS, the artificial neural networks and the fuzzy algorithms. Neural networks are gaining special importance in robotic science because they are able to learn and adapt to a changing environment. Fuzzy systems often are applied in areas like decision finding or control. A new research subject „Neurofuzzy“ is developed whose aim is the combined usage of advantages of neural networks and fuzzy system to increase the efficiency. The current research topic there is the development of neuro and neuro-fuzzy algorithms to navigate the mobile robot in an indoor environment. For practical oriented research three mobile robots („Nomad 200“, „Maxifander“ and “Pioneer”) were installed at the institute. The project “Roby Space” supported by “esa – European Space Agency” and “ASA- Austrian Space Agency” is a spin off from robotsoccer. Based on the soccer minirobots a new robot is in development able to crawl on a mesh in outer space.[33] Another project is dealing with robots for “Humanitarian Demining”.[34] More and more importance in robotics and automation gain the vision systems. To sort parts on a band conveyor or to recognize the position and the shape of a part vision systems are successfully applied. There are different ways to use a vision system in robotics or automation. But in each application the vision system realize only one job. That is to find out image data to control the primary process in an automated manufacturing system or to control a robot or a robots gripper. Broad space is left to the use of industrial robots in Austria’s industry - especially in small- and medium-sized companies - in connection with tasks of assembly technique. This is very often accomplished in the context of CIM-concepts. For that reason CIM-systems are also part of interest of the institute. The task of the institute is to do theoretical research in the field of robotics, where industrial applications seem to be future oriented. Furthermore results in research should be utilized for Austria’s industry. The companies of interest are small and medium sized companies. This leads to following research topics: kinematics and kinetics of industrial robots, advanced control algorithms, optimal path planning, sensors and sensor-signals (microsystems), applications, robots in CIM-concepts, assembly and disassembly with industrial robots, low cost vision systems ( recognize and process ), assembly-oriented construction, methods of artificial intelligence in robotics, social and cultural aspects of robotics, low-cost automation, mobile robots, fuzzy and neuro concepts, cooperate robots, service robots ( medicine, ... ), mobile, autonomous agent system ( MAS )> 8@ . One other topic in the next few years will be "Entertainment Robots". Most people think chatting with "intelligent" robots happens only in movies. Most companies spend a lot of money to appear at trade shows and sponsor special events. Entertainment robots are an economical, entertaining way to become the center of attention and to guarantee making unforgettable impressions in any venue.Therefore this kind of robots will be used every 4
day for corporations, theme parks, malls, museums, hospitals and schools etc. At the institute two robot dogs are available since some years. The institute is also involved in research projects dealing with the development of a flexible, modular and "low cost" robotized assembly cell and a sensory equipped low cost gripper for robots > 9@ , [10]. In this project researchers from Slovenija are involved. The planning of assembly cells was done by hand until now. In regard to the increasing amount of cells this does not seem to be economical in near future. Goal of this project is the development of a software, based on a relational database, which allows a computer aided planning of an assembly cell. In the first step a description of the parts of the assembled products in necessary. After that the operations are described by means of a specially developed "Assembly Symbol Language", which allows a standardized and formalized description of the operations. The components necessary for the realization of this assembly task are determined under direction of the planner on base of the task description (parts, operations), the data of the single components available in the component database. The utilization of the planning software should decrease the time of passage in planning of flexible assembly cells and increase the quality at the same time. A new important global research area is robot application in recycling. One very significant part there is disassembling, which is the starting point of all recycling processes. To automate different recycling processes it is necessary to connect disassembling with automation and intelligent systems. For this purpose the design of such a cell is most significant. Therefore basic research work dealing with this topic is also done at the institute. Compared to an assembly cell this process is much more complicated. This is mainly caused by the usage of the product. Hence designing a disassembly cell the aspects of corrosion, pollution, oil, wear, geometrical damage and aging have to be considered. It will be further complicated when the cell has to handle hazardous materials and elements of the products have to be destroyed. For designing a flexible intelligent disassembling cell all these influences and also the different operations in such a cell, the different strategies and forms of organization, the optimal disassembly depth and the adequate utilization of the different equipment, especially the sensors, have to be recognized. The Institute is involved in several projects financed by EC. The research group „Mathematical Modelling and Simulation“ at Vienna University of Technology continues research on path planning. Currently, algorithms for the computation of (time-)optimal paths under realistic (actuator) constraints are under development. First computational experiments indicate that they can be successfully and easily applied to a broad variety of tasks by using standard software tools. Moreover, inclusion of (geometric) path constraints (collision avoidance) will be possible in a straightforward manner. A second direction of research is part of a project carried out with Doc.Dr. Karl Gotlih from University of Maribor within the Austrian/Slovenian cooperation program. It is concerned with global control of redundant robot mechanisms. Again an optimal path is to be determined. Here, not the time needed for the movement is of interest but optimal use of the freedom resulting from redundancy. High flexibility and manipulability are important for many different tasks in the industry, space, and dangerous environments and in applications under the sea. Hence, Yoshikawas manipulability index is the starting point. Unfortunately, it can not be used directly due to the appearance of a singular matrix. Numerical problems could be overcome by an appropriate modification of this index, solutions with guaranteed stability of the controlled 5
system have to be developed. Moreover, contrary to existing algorithms and methods, the resulting new algorithm should not rely so strongly on the mechanism structure and on the prescribed kinematic and kinetic requirements of the prescribed task. The “Institute for Automation and Control” (ACIN) works in special fields of process automation science (flow of products, energy and information). The research fields are control engineering and industrial automation, including modern control theory, computer-vision for robotics, mobile robotics, distributed control systems, cognitive information processing and management technologies. The objective of the research field “Vision for Automation” is to develop robust vision systems for robotic applications (robust detection and object tracking, 3D vision, feature classification, spatio-temporal object relationships, prediction, and interpretation of visual representations), advanced robotics (machine- and cognitive vision) and Human-Machine-Interaction. Following some representative projects are shortly introduced that reflects our research work: The EU project FibreScope (Flexible Inspection of Bores with a Robotic EndoSCOPE) investigates in a robot driven bore inspection system for highly automated quality control in production systems [38]. A “lotsize 1” painting application is developed in the EU project FlexPaint (Efficient Low Volume High Variant Robotized Painting). Dealing with the inverse approach an object is scanned with a laser range finder, process relevant features are extracted and a collision-free robot program is generated which is executed by a spray painting robot. The customer benefit is an automatic spray-painting of objects without a priori knowledge about the geometrical object properties [39]. ActiPret (A Component-based Approach to Activity Interpretation, EU project) is a general approach to utilize vision data for cognitive action interpretation. Objectives are to demonstrate a layered cognitive vision approach, and to study the interaction of high-level and low-level information. A crucial point is to handle contextual knowledge issues as e. g. the task-based control of SOI (Space of Interest). [40] The EU project MOVEMENT aims at the development of a MOdular VErsatile Mobility ENhancemenT system. The core is formed by an intelligent mobile (robotic) platform which can attach to a user definable selection of application modules (e.g. chair, manipulator, ICT Terminal) which are more or less inconspicuous mainstream articles but will become powerful assistive devices when the mobile platform attaches to them All three dimensions of personal mobility, people, objects and information movement are comprehensively addressed. In the SmartTracking (FWF) project, a new, generic approach to real-time tracking using a combination of “smart sensors” is searched. The primary goal is a reliable reconstruction of the trajectory of the system itself, as well as the recovery of 3D structure required for successful tracking. [41] In the research field of “Coginitive Information Processing”, artificial neural nets and knowledge based systems are used for semantic information processing. For example, a neural coordiniation unit for a hyper-redundant tentacle robot-arm has been designed [42].
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The Institute of "Manufacturing Technology" in the Department of Mechanical Engineering of the University of Technology of Vienna was responsible for the foundation of an interuniversitary CIM Center called IUCCIM. In this center 8 University Institutes from the University of Technology of Vienna, from the University of Economics in Vienna as well as some companies are involved. In this center industrial robots are installed mainly for tasks of assembly automation as well as machine loading and unloading. Research activities are concentrated to use industrial robots in CIM concepts. The “Consortium and Laboratory on Advanced Robotics Architectures“ ( CLARA; http://clara.tuwien.ac.at), which was founded in September 2003 at the Vienna University of Technology is an interdisciplinary research group focused at the topic of autonomous, mobile, cooperating robots. The reason for a braod cooperation was that this topic requires knowledge of different technical disciplines, like computer science (e.g. for image processing, modelling and representation of the application, intelligent selection of the actions), electrical engineering (e.g. for hardware design, electric drive, communication), mechanical engineering (e.g. for mechanical construction) and control engineering (e.g. motion control, sensor fusion). Meanwhile the following institutes participate: “Institute of Computer Technology”; “Institute for Machine and Process Automation”; “Institute of Information Systems (Knowledge-Based Systems Group)”; “ Institute for Computer Engineering (Real-Time Systems Group)”; “Institute of Computer Aided Automation (Pattern Recognition and Image Processing Group)”; “Institute of Electrical Measurement and Circuit Design”. The mission of CLARA is to push and coordinate the development of modular designed cooperating autonomous mobile robot systems at the Vienna University of Technology. The results of research should be used in university teaching as well as for industry solutions. Currently CLARA develops the second generation of two small robots. One is Tinyphoon and the other is NANO. Tinyphoon is a small two-wheeled differentially driven robot with integrated vision system, which fits in a cube with an edge length of 75 mm. The vision system [43] detects objects within a time interval of less than 11 ms. Tinyphoon consists on the one hand of a motion unit containing the motor driver, a micro controller, digital encoders for the measurement of the wheels' speed, acceleration sensors and a yaw rate sensor. On the other hand it consists of a mono vision system unit equipped with a CMOS camera and a DSP (Digital Signal Processor). Both units are connected via CAN (Controller Area Network) bus. The robot was shown on the largest exhibition for embedded Systems in Europe at the Embedded World 2004 in Nürnberg and it was even exhibited in USA (Redmont – Microsoft Headquarter and San Francisco – Embedded System fair). NANO is the worldwide smallest six-legged robot with a size of 12cm and a weight of only 270g. Its mechanical construction is based on the natures archetype, the Pharnacia acanthopus. CLARA also develops modular hardware and software components in order to speed up development of future more sophisticatged robots that can be assembled with standardized highly optimized components. At the Institute of Mechanics and Mechanisms [19] of the Technical University of Graz, robotics research is conducted in the areas of software development for multibody simulation, symbolical methods for mechanism analysis, path planning of robots, design and control of walking machines, design and control of parallel-platform mechanical surrogates for biomechanic systems, and vision-robot interaction. For multibody simulation, the object-oriented program system “Mobile” has been developed, featuring elements for dynamics, including contact mechanics, kinematics, stationary positions, and others. In symbolical methods for mechanism analysis, a Mathematica as well as a C++ code has been implemented that produce automatically closed-form solutions suitable for generation of for FLOPS-optimized code for the kinematics and dynamics of complex robotic mechanisms. 7
In the Institute’s lab, two industrial robots (Kuka KR 6 and KR 15) are available that are being used for industrial research projects. One of these projects is the automated near-field sound scanning of combustion engines using a single microphone. To this end, the robot automatically assesses the geometry of the motor with a laser scanner and then produces with the help of the operator an appropriate scanning path. A second project is a “ball catching” robot resulting from a student contest. To this end, the industrial robot is endowed with a vision system (DataCube) and appropriate control software such as to track the ball path and compute the assumed catching point within 0.6 seconds. The ball catching robot has been on display non-stop during the entire Styrian-State exposition “comm.gr2000az” from Mai to October 2000. More details can be found at the web page http://www.tu-graz.ac.at/igi/robotik built at the Institute for Theoretical Computer Science. For walking machines, the institute is currently adapting an anthropomorphic leg mechanism for a two-legged and two-wheeled vehicle. The project involves the modeling and simulation of the kinematics and the dynamics of the vehicle, including non-holonomic constraints, impact mechanics and closed-loop kinematics, the design and implementation of an appropriate control scheme, using feedbacklinearization, and the building of a scaled model using stepper motors. the final target of the project is to build a suitable vehicle platform for excavators to be used in uneven, flooded or steep terrain. In the realm of bio-mechanics, the institute is pursuing to build a miniature parallel platform which is suitable for use as a physical simulator of the inter-vertebral motion (involving in this setting the vertebrae pair C5-C6). The project involves modeling and simulation of the inter-vertebral motion, design of a suitable parallel platform, and design of a appropriate control software
The Institute of “Production Technology“ at the Graz University of Technology is highly specialized in precision engineering and metrology. In the field of robotics a new Anthropoidic Measuring Device AMG-1 has been developed, designed and built at IFT > 14@ . On one hand AMG-1 can be seen as a passive robot, without drives and control but containing encoders of highest resolution and accuracy, on the other hand AMG-1 is a coordinate measuring machine with exclusively rotatory joints. When connected to a robot, AMG-1 can be used for testing the accuracy of the robot as well as a measuring device, which is handled by the robot. A new mechanic device has been developed which makes it possible to measure geometric errors as well as the dynamic behavior of a robot. Both the pose axes and the orientation axes are covered > 16@ . Furthermore a universe Test Field for Robot accuracy has been installed: With the new calibration device the home position and the length and position of all joints of a robot can be determined precisely by means of a simple mechanical equipment consisting of marketable elements > 15@ . The Department for Robotics of the Institute for Handling- and Manufacturing Systems at the Johannes Kepler University of Linz was founded in October 1995. The department is responsible for education of the students of the Mechatronics course in Linz in the field of robotics and technical mechanics. Main topics in research of the department are: Stationary Robots - Combined position/force control for cooperating hybrid robot manipulators: One goal is to use the elasticity of the robot arms to determine the endeffector forces for closed loop 8
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control. Another one is to design a master/slave control structure, where the elastic slave robot must follow the path which is given from the rigid master in real-time. For verifying the theoretical and simulation results, a laboratory robot with elastic arms and an industrial (rigid) Stäubli robot were installed in the laboratory of the department. Only recently a new cooperation was started with our partner, the TMS (Transport und Montage Systeme), a subsidiary of the VA Tech trust. Currently we are working on two projects. Both projects deal with calibration of industrial robots and the usage of industrial robots as measuring devices.
Walking Machines - Development and construction of a biped: The goal of this research project is to develop a 14 degree-of-freedom two-legged machine, which is able to move statically and/or dynamically stable on several surfaces, e.g. walking on a plane, stair climbing upwards and downwards. Different gait generators, control structures and stability analyses are calculated and tested in numerical simulations and experiments with the biped which was constructed within this project. A main part of the project is to work out efficient new algorithms for dynamical multibody simulations with contact. Another goal is the development of a six legged walking machine which is also able to drive by wheels. Depending an the surface the walking machine decides, if it is, possible to drive with high speed or to walk slowly, e.g. to climb over obstacles. Walking assistance: A new research project of the department started recently and is dealing with servomotor controlled legged robot for people who have suffered a major loss of muscle control. Elastic Robots - Simulation and control of elastic multibody systems suffer about a principal difficulty. All involved matrices grow fast, as number of bodies increases. To avoid the inversion of such huge matrices a new algorithm of computational order (N) was developed at the institute. This allows to simulate all necessary degrees of freedom of an elatic robot without spending a lot of time on calculation. Research objects are further theoretical improvements of this algorithm comprising contact force, friction, multibody chains, as well as implementation of an small microcontroller (“embedded systems”) where the simulation should run in real time. Mobile Robots - Modeling and control of mobile robots: Several mobile platforms moving on planar surfaces under nonholonomic constraints are considered. Exact feedback-linearization methods in combination with linear control theory and nonlinear observers for state-space estimation are used to control the different kinematic and kinetic mathematical models. To verify the theoretical results of this work in laboratory and industrial environment, a foursteering-wheel mobile robot was developed at the department. In cooperation with VA– TMS some of these control structures will be tested under industrial conditions.
The main field of work of the Institute for Automation at the University of Mining, Leoben is the combination of robotics and digital image processing. In some cases the robots are used as simple manipulators for digital image processing systems, in others the vision system is used to guide the robot. The institutes robotics projects, where made for industrial partners such as ABB, ELTRONA RKT, Joanneum Research GmbH, Magna Steyr Heavy Stamping, RHI Refractories, VOEST ALPINE Mechatronics. Past and current projects: 9
x Programming of communication protocols and user interfaces in LabVIEW for complete robot control over RS-232 for Mitsubishi, Kawasaki, Kuka and ABB robots. x Programming of communication protocols and user interfaces in LabVIEW and Matlab for complete robot control over TCP/IP for Stäubli and ABB robots. x Geometry measurements and 3D reconstruction of turbine plates using a standard light sectioning head and a Mitsubishi robot. x Geometry measurements and 3D reconstruction of connectors for cable trees using a Kuka robot and a special designed light sectioning head. x Design of a workcell and realization for a fully automated cable confectioning system using a Kuka robot. x Repeatability and accuracy measurements on different types of Kuka, ABB and Stäubli robots using a therefore special designed measurement setup (including an infrared camera to measure the temperature change of the complete robot during the warm up phase) and a special designed vision sensor. x Geometry measurements and 3D reconstruction of small geometries using a special designed light sectioning head and a Stäubli robot. x Surface inspection for the automotive industry using a therefore designed vision sensor and an ABB robot. x Setup of an optical guided measurement system using a Stäubli robot and a camera for the 3D reconstruction of rough surfaces using stereoscopy.
All of the above mentioned robots (Mitsubishi, Kawasaki, Kuka, ABB and Stäubli) have been in use at the Institute for Automation. Currently the Institute for Automation is running a robotics lab with two measurement cells, one using an ABB IRB 2400/16 the other a Stäubli RX 60L. In the Department of Mathematics at the University of Innsbruck research in the field of Robotics is carried out by a small team in cooperation with the Department of Computer Science at the University o f Buenos Aires, Argentina. The main focus of the team is Reinforcement Learning. New methods in multi-criteria and multi-environment learning have been proposed and tested with the small miniature robot Khepera [35]. A grid world simulator and a visualization tool for the robot have been implemented, additionally to a Maple package for Markov decision processes. Since the foundation of the new Department of Computer Science in 2001 some researchers and students have joined the project and are working on open source software to control the robot. Several events including presentations of Lego robots, robot soccer, industrial robots and miniature robots have been organized to raise the public understanding of science.http://mathematik.uibk.ac.at/users/rl The Institute for Software Technology at the Graz University of Technology does research in the field of autonomous mobile robots. The main research topics are the software development for mobile robots and abstract symbol-based robot control systems. The important aspects of software development for mobile robots are the development of open, flexible and reusable software frameworks for mobile robots, the optimization of the software development process and the improvement of the robustness of the software by the application of model-based diagnosis and reconfiguration. Furthermore, IST does research on the application of qualitative approaches to robot control, like classic planning and qualitative reasoning.
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IST hosts and leads the RoboCup Middle-Size Team of Graz University of Technology 'Mostly Harmless', which successfully participated for the first time in RoboCup 2003. The robots have been designed, custom-built and programmed by grade and PhD students. The research interest in the RoboCup domain include symbolic robot control, MDB for robot applications, sensorfusion, localization, multi-robot cooperation and service robot applications. Moreover, IST works in cooperation with University of Ulm on MIRO, an open software framework for robot applications. Currently, the institute uses four custom-build RoboCup Middle-Size robots and two fully equipped Pioneer (one indoor and one outdoor version) for research and teaching. Technikum Wien devotes to technical education and with more than 1700 students it is today an attractive and modern university in Austria. The course of study Mechatronics/Robotic at the Technikum Vienna is a very modern and innovative study (Web: http://www.technikumwien.at). In the first part of the study the basics of Robotics, Mechanics, Electrical engineering and Informatics are being taught. In higher semesters future technologies like Micro and Mobile robotics are part of the curriculum. The contents of the courser are being updated every year to fit the needs of the industry. Students can fulfil your praxis semester either at company within Austria or at a company abroad. Lectures are being held by university professors, subject specialists or international guest lecturers. In the first semester, the students already learn how to program an industry robot. From the beginning on they have the chance to work on concrete projects, to try out the newest controls and sensors and to visit various production companies. During the first year of the Department of Mechatronics and Robotics was built a high-tech robot lab with nine different industrial robots and many different kind of newest robot simulation software.
2.2 Research in other Institutes ARC Seibersdorf Research – Robotics Lab In addition to classical industrial robotic applications – e.g. development of a robotic system for steel rods selection - the robotics group of ARC Seibersdorf Research (ARCS) is focusing on development of intelligent robotic systems especially for service, rehabilitation and medicine. In Service Robotics, one past project dealt with the development of a remote controlled robotic system for inspection and cleaning of rectangular air ducts. A more recent project is dealing with the development of a robot-based high performance transhipment system with scalable performance - suitable for parallel and serial operation. Main R&D aspects for this project include system dependability, image-guided positioning and manipulation of loading units as well as communication/coordination between system components with respect to the particular environmental conditions of the given application scenario. General research is also dealing with development of a robust “low-cost” 3D-vision system as well as local/global navigation of mobile robot platforms. Beside utilization for a recent rehabilitation robotics project, results from this work also flow into a new outdoor robotics project starting by late 2004.
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In the area of Assistive Devices and Rehabilitation Robotics, our major role is defined in bringing the technology right to the patient rather than performing basic research. Current projects in this area are dealing with a new system for “Intelligent Wheelchair Control” and with “ARChy” - a mobile communication unit for rehabilitation and care. Results of the aforementioned projects will be advanced in course of the new started EU-FP6 research project “MOVEMENT” where ARCS is jointly responsible for development of sensor-based robot navigation, SLAM as well as development of application modules. Another research project deals with “robot assisted playing” where robotics technology is being used in order to allow autonomous playing for children with severe physically handicaps. A first robot prototype for playing with LEGO™ bricks is available since 2003 and has been evaluated with very promising results. In the recent project phase, three redesigned prototypes are under development and will be distributed to selected special schools for a long-term study. Finally, a new project in the area of rehabilitation is dealing with the development of an orthosis for the upper extremities in order to support physical therapy. Research in this particular field is supported by the ARCS business field on "Medical and Rehabilitation Engineering" which is also operating an information center for rehabilitation technology and is - as a consequence - in permanent contact with people with special needs as well as with their therapists. In the field of Medical Robotics, research is concentrating on the development of robotic systems for any kind of needle based interventions. One cornerstone is “B-RobI” – a prototype for an integrated robotic system for percutaneous interventions. A 4DOF active robot equipped with a special designed 3DOF needle holder – both systems designed and manufactured by ARCS – supports the interventionist by exactly positioning the biopsy needle along the desired path. A planning screen allows pre-operative planning of the intervention as well as intra-operatively control of the needle insertation. A prototype of the system is available since mid of 2002 and is being used for several in vitro tests. The obtained results clearly demonstrate that robot assisted biopsies with both ultra-sound guidance as well as CTimaging can be accomplished with higher accuracy w.r.t. manual interventions. Based on the experiences of the aforementioned project, a redesign of the robot system could be finalized which results in higher grade of modularity, reduced system complexity and thus in a better integration into clinical workflow. The new prototype of the robot is available since summer 2004 and undergoes now various in vitro and in vivo evaluations in cooperation with our development partners at University Hospital Vienna as well as University Hospital Innsbruck.
Microsystems, Microrobotics: In addition to the research areas outlined above, the group is involved in a number of activities in the field of Microsystem Technologies, especially in those fields where automation, micro-manipulation and micro-mechanical processes and tools are needed. Our know-how in mechatronics, robotics, automation and manufacturing systems can provide an added value in collaborations with national and international partners in the field of Microsystem Technologies, as demonstrated by our strong involvement in several projects within this field in the 6th Framework Program, e.g. training network ASSEMIC. ARCS is also one of the three institutions involved in Integrated Microsystems Austria (IMA), established as the first design and prototyping centre for MEMS products and MEMS based technologies in Austria.
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RISC-Linz (Research Institute for Symbolic Computation) deals with symbolic computation covers all algorithmic aspects of solving problems with symbolic (i.e. nonnumeric) objects > 13@ . One of the most promising areas of applications for symbolic computation is softautomation including robotics. Many subproblems in the simulation, analysis, control, and supervision of robots or whole robot working cells can be attacked by symbolic techniques like geometric modeling, computational geometry, algebraic geometry, knowledge engineering, computer graphics. Research topics in past and current projects are: Gröbner bases for computing inverse kinematics, path planning for non-synchronized motions, Roider method for collision detection, NC-SAVE, simulation and verification environment for NC machining, Voronoi diagrams for path finding, robot vision based on geometric modeling. „Hybrid evolutionary programming“ describes the combination of symbolic computation techniques with recent evolutionary programming techniques, for example neural networ and genetic programming, which share the common feature of self-adaption (evolution) in environments. In contrast to the purely evolutionary programming approach as pursued by most researchers in this area, in our hybrid approach, we integrate the benefits of advanced symbolic computation techniques into the paradigm of evolutionary programming. The application areas of this paradigm can be found in collision-free inverse kinematics calculation, reactive control; on-line path and trajectory planning; and lifelong learning-based modeling of autonomous agents. As might be expexted, robotics research at the Austrian Research Institute for Artificial Intelligence (OFAI) focuses on AI technology for robot learning and Embodied AI. The institute is currently involved in three EU projects where behaviour-based robots play an important part. Based on long-standing research in machine learning and neural networks, the robot group studies behaviour and language learning as well as developmental aspects in robotics research (recently termed "epigenetic robotics"). OFAI has developed techniques for anchoring linguistic symbols in the behavioural experience of mobile robots, studied the use of artificial immune systems for robot control, and evaluated behavioural map-learning in autonomous robotic systems. Students at the institute developed robot control software and currently construct a mobile robot which is modular in hard- and software. Future work at OFAI will focus further on mobile robots, on learning systems, and in particular on anticipatory behaviour and the more foundational question of robot affordances. [35a], [36], [37].
2.3 Research by Industry Research and Development igm Robotersysteme AG: A new system for offline programming with the teach pendant, called offline teaching, has been developped and already introduced to ithe market. International patents are applied. Creating a robot program with an off-line system does not occupy the robot. Time can be saved by easier programming and by performing the test run of robot program (accessibility, 13
cycle time) without danger. Also there is no damage at collision by offline programming and the editing of welding parameters offline is very simple. Automatic assisted programming methods are available, which help to decrease the programming time. Using the PC, the backup of programs and parameters can easily be managed. An other advantage is, that off-line systems can be used as a tool for robot training facilities. Most of the existing offline programming software products are very complex and expensive, requiring extensive training. Due to their general application, they are usually not designed for welding tasks. The simulation tools applied, do not always perfectly showing the real movement of the robot. When developing the igm off-line programming studio, it was the target to create a simple-touse system, which is working in an identically way as the real robot. The basis for this product is, that not a simulation tool is used for the calculation, but the real igm robot controller RCi (under VX-Works), being operated with the original igm teach pendant K5. For the programming task, a key board is not necessary! Advantages of the offline teaching - Online robot movement is identical to offline movement. - Online programming method of K5 is identical to teach-in programming using the teach pendant. - Therefore no additional training is necessary. - Offline teaching can be easily used for training of robot programming. - All data are compatible with robot control and no converting is necessary. - All functions of robot control RCi are included in offline version. - Low cost using a standard PC. - Easy import of 3D CAD workpiece data. The push-pull wire drive TD ("Torch Drive") already introduced for aluminum welding and thin gauge sheet metal for plasma and MIG brazing has now been upgraded for tandem welding applications. In order to increase deposite rate also for aluminium welding, this system is now also successfully applied for tandem-aluminium applications. The development of the automatic exchange system for welding torches could be completed. The system now available allows free rotation of the torch by almost 720°, allowing also the use with high deposit welding equipment, welding torches (tandem welding) with a nominal welding current of 900 A. Also a change between single and tandem welding process is possible. Due to the hollow shaft in the wrist joint, the various torches (with hose packages coupled) can be fed through. Fixing is assured by a rotation movement. This unique arrangement offer the following advantages: - All media are lead through the robots wrist joint - Torch can rotate almost 720° - Flexibility of robot arm remain - Extreme slim design - Combination single wire - tandem possible - Short changing time - approx. 10 s only PROFACTOR Produktionsforschungs GmbH was founded 1994 by a group of scientists, heads of companies and politicians. Its goal is to develop new integral, holistic concepts in the fields of research and development, design and manufacturing and to support development and application of new technologies. Currently 70 multidisciplinary scientists elaborate problem 14
analysis and advanced, holistic solutions for modern manufacturing facilities in close cooperation with industrial enterprises. PROFACTOR also aims to help European companies to participate in global trends and developments. The innovative element is the multidisciplinary and integral approach to manufacturing problems. Engineers, scientists, experts in communication and business administration work together in a close co-operation to find efficient solutions for manufacturing processes. The commercial basis of PROFACTOR are various bi-lateral research projects with international manufacturing companies. The robotics group at PROFACTOR integrates 10 experts from robotics, computer vision and measurement science. In the past, the group has gathered great experience in various national and international research projects on autonomous robots, sensor-based control of redundant manipulators, flexible automation of painting applications and automated visual inspection and measurement systems. Another important new field of work is the integrated design and development of flexible sensor/robot work cells on the basis of dynamic simulations carried out with the software tool eM-Workplace from Tecnomatix. One of the strongest trends in industry is the transition from mass production towards a service oriented one which provides production on demand, mass customization, and rapid reaction to market changes, European industry is facing the challenge to produce according to the lot-size one paradigma (“one-of-a-kind” production) at low cost and high quality. These demands exceed the capabilities of nowadays automation by far. Therefore PROFACTOR, together with an international consortium of industrial and scientific partners, pioneers the development of innovative and user friendly robotic systems for efficient automation and semi-automation of production processes at small lot sizes down to one. As a first step, self-programming robot systems generate the application program out of simulation and planning systems based on sensory input or transferred product data. Two main concepts have been developed so far: Robot path generation on (i) sensor data and (ii) product data (CAD). The former concept completely relies on the detection of a full three-dimensional model in world coordinates. In order to generate a consistent model, methods on range image registration, surface modelling and feature detection have been integrated. The latter concept requires the compensation of object pose uncertainties by object localization. A new ground of describing an object by local probabilistic point signatures has been broken, paving the way for object localization and object recognition. An embedded automatic robot planning system with real sensor integration will unleash the limited capability of todays machine vision systems and give full access to product data, handling any kind of uncertainties. Several projects have been launched so far tackling the demand of small lot size production. The main target of the EC project FibreScope (Flexible Inspection of Bores with a Robotic EndoSCOPE) was to develop an industrial system for automated 100% surface inspection of bores, which meets the quality-control requirements for safety critical applications. The EC project FlexPaint (Efficient Low Volume High Variant Robotized Painting), coordinated by Profactor, focused on the development of methodologies to automize painting applications for smaller lot sizes (below 10000) with a very high number of variants (more than 100 per year) at total part numbers in the range of 10000 per year. Other industrial implementations are currently under way.
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ReUse (Elektro(nik)produkte und Bauteileverwertung) is a private limited liability company located in Vienna. The activities of ReUse are concentrated on the refurbishment and re-use of electr(on)ic products and components, which leads to a reduction and substitution of hazardous industrial and processing materials. The heart of this business field is an intelligent, semi-automatic disassembly cell [30] for printed circuit boards. The disassembly cell allows to process a vast array of integrated circuits for re-sale into the worldwide market place, whether it be thru-hole, surface mount or mixed on board technology, it can be processed, any package type. The decentrally pre-disassembled PCBs are first cleaned and fixed on frames. After this first manual process step they enter the automatic disassembly line. A recognition system with image processing identifies re-usable parts and toxic components by their shape and lables comparing the data with a database. The operation of the cell is also guided by market information providing data about the price that can actually be achieved for the different parts. Components which are recognised as valuable or potentially hazardous are dessoldered by laser and removed using special robotic grippers in the next process step. MTR ( Mobile Telefon Recycling) as a spin off of “ReUse” has the same goals but is concentrated on disassembly and recycling of mobile phones [34]. ISL/ISS ( Innovative Systems Solutions) is a very small and young company dealing mostly with the development and use of mobile robots. Together with IHRT a family of minirobots was developed. Currently research and development is in the direction of walking machines for industrial use (cleaning, landmine detection,…..). First ideas comes up for the development of a small humanoid robot.
3 Summary Austria as a very small country has only a real chance in the field of robotics - like in other so called high tech fields - by trying to modify and applicate research results mainly for small and medium sized companies. This requires the development of flexible, modular low cost solutions for robotic systems. In the near future assembly and disassembly automation, to reuse products will be a great importance for the Austrian industry. Therefore the development of low cost sensors in the direction of intelligent robots must be a research topic in Austria in the future probably by means of tools from microsystems. Furthermore the methods of artificial intelligence e.g. intelligent diagnosis systems are introduced in robotics research in Austria. Mobile robots especially for medical applications, edutainment, humanitarian demining…… are developed and will be used in the near future in industry.
4 Literature > 1@ World Robotics 2003. United Nations, New York and Geneva, 2003. > 2@ Preprints of the Int.Workshop “Robotics in Alpe-Adria Region”, Pörtschach, 1995.
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> 3@ Preprints of the Workshop on „Human Oriented Design of Advanced Robotics Systems“, Vienna, 1995. > 4@ Preprints of the Intern. Conference on “Advanced Robotics, Intelligent Automation and Active Systems”, Vienna, 1996. > 5@ Preprints of the Workshop on “Medical Robots”, Vienna, 1996. > 6@ Preprints of the Workshop “Manufacturing Systems: Modelling, Management and Control”, Vienna 1997. [7@ Proceedings of the Int. Conference on “Intelligent Engineering Systems”, 1998, Vienna. > 8@ Activities of the Institute of "Handling Devices and Robotics", Univ. of Technology Vienna, www.ihrt.tuwien.ac.at. > 9@ Kopacek, P. and Fronius, K.: CIM Concept for the Production of Welding Transformers. Preprints of the IFAC Symposium “Information Control Problems in Manufacturing Technology - INCOM '89” , Madrid 1989, Volume 2, p. 737 - 740. > 10@ Kopacek, P., A. Frotschnig and M. Zauner: CIM for small companies, Preprints of the IFAC Workshop on "Automatic Control for Quality and Productivity - ACQP '92" Istanbual 1992, p. 35 – 41. > 11@ Activity report of the Institute for Flexible Automation Univ. of Technology Vienna. > 12@ Activity report of the Department of "Systems Engineering and Automation", at the Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria. > 13@ Stifter, S.: Research Activities in Robotics at RISC-Linz, Preprints of the International Workshop on "Robotics in Alpe-Adria Region", 1993. > 14@ Kovac, I., Frank, A.: Robot guided Anthropoidic Measuring Device, Preprints of the 2nd Intern. Meeting on “Robots in Alpe Adria Region”, Krems 1993, pp. MO 1.1-1-MO 1.1-5 > 15@ Kovac, I.; Frank, A.: A novel Industrial Robot Calibration Device. Proceedings of the 1st International Meeting on “Robots in Alpe Adria Region”, Portoroz 1992, pp. 162-167. > 16@ Kovac, I.: Pose- und Bahngenauigkeitsprüfung von Robotern nach ISO 9283, Technik Report Wien, 9A, September 1993, pp. 20-22. > 17@ Beneder M.: An Intelligent Navigator for Robotic Workcell Planning and Control - R. Trappl (ed.) Cybernetics and Systems '94 , World Scientific, Singapore, New Jersey, 1994, pp. 1459- 1466. > 18@ Chroust G., Jacak W.: Simulation in Process Engineering.- Rozenblit J. (ed.): AIS-93, 4th Conf. on “AI, Simulation, and Planning in High Autonomy Systems”, Tuscon Sept. 1993, IEEE C/S Press pp. 232-237. > 19@ Activity report of the Institute of Mechanics and Mechanisms of the Technical University of Graz, Sept. 2000. > 20@ Activity report of the Austrian Research Centers Seibersdorf, Sept. 2000 > 21@ Computer Aided Systems Theory – EUROCAST’99, Springer Publishing Comp. > 22@ Proceedings of the 1st International IFAC Workshop on “Multi-Agent Systems in Production - MAS’99”, Vienna 1999, Elsevier Publishing Comp., 2001 > 23@ Proceedings of the 6th IFAC Symposium on “Robot Control - SYROCO’00”, Vienna 2000, Elsevier Publishing Comp. > 24@ Proceedings of the XVI IMEKO World Congress, Vol. XI - “Measurement in Robotics ISMCR’00”, Vienna 2000 > 25@ Proceedings of the 10th International Workshop on “Robotics in Alpe-Adria-Danube Region - RAAD´01”, Vienna 2001. > 26@ Preprints of the 10th IFAC Symposim on “Information Control Problems in Manufacturing - INCOM´01”, Vienna 2001 17
> 27@ Proceedings of the 1st IARP Workshop on “Robots for Humanitarian Demining – HUDEM’02”, Vienna, 2002. [28] Proceedings of the IARP “on site” Workshop “HUDEM`03”, Prishtina, Kosovo; June 2003. [29] Proceedings of the 2nd FIRA World Congress, 2003; Vienna, October 2003 in conjunction with the FIRA Robotsoccer World Cup. [30] Kopacek, P.; Kopacek, B.: State of the Art and Future Trends in Intelligent Disassembly. In: Conference Proceedings of Going Green CARE INNOVATION 2002, Wien, 25.-28. November 2002. [31] Kopacek, P.; Han, M.-W.; Putz, B.; Würzl, M.; Schierer, E.: Robot Soccer – a First Step to „Edutainment“. In: CD-ROM Proceedings of the 12th Workshop on “Robotics in Alpe-Adria-Danube Region – RAAD’03”, Cassino, Italy, 7. – 10. Mai 2003. [32] Kopacek, P.: Robots for humanitarian demining. In: Advances in Automatic Control (Ed. M Voicu), Kluver, 2004, p.159- 172. [33]Kopacek, P., M.-W. Han, B. Putz, E. Schierer, M. Würzl: A concept of a hightech mobile minirobot for outer space - s6 near-term demonstrators and experiments, Will be published in: Proceedings of the esa-Conference “ Solar Energy from Space“, Granada, July 2004. [34] Kopacek,P. and B. Kopacek: Robotized disassembly of mobile phones. In: Preprints of the IFAC Workshop „Intelligent assembly and disassembly – IAD’03”, Bucharest, p.142144. [35] Matt, A. and Regensburger, G.: Reinforcement Learning for Several Environments: Theory and Applications. PhD thesis, University of Innsbruck, 2004. [35a] Juergen Rattenberger et al., Artificial Immune Networks for Robot Control, Fourth International Workshop on Epigenetic Robotics, Genoa, 2004. [36] Erich Prem, A Biosemiotic Framework for Artificial Autonomous Sign Users, AAAI Workshop on Symbol Anchoring, San José, CA, AAAI, 2004. [37] Erik Hoertnagl, Erich Prem, Patrick M. Poelz, Anchoring Symbols by Mapping Sequences of Distance Measurements: Experimental Results, San José, CA, AAAI, 2004. [38] Biegelbauer, G., Noehmayer, H., Eberst, Ch., Vincze, M., Sensor Based Robotics for fully Automated Inspection of Bores at Low Volume High Variant Parts, IEEE Int. Conf. on Robotics and Automation (ICRA’04), New Orleans, pp. 4852-4857, April 2004. [39] Pichler, A., Vincze, M., Andersen, A., Madsen, O., Haeusler, K., A Method for Automatic Spray Painting of Unknown Parts; IEEE Int. Conf. on Robotics and Automation (ICRA’02), Washington D.C., pp. 444-449, May 2002. [40] Vincze, M., A Software Framework to Integrate Vision and Reasoning Components for Cognetive Vision Systems, IEEE Int. Conf. on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS’04), Workshop on Advances in Robot Vision – From Domestic Environments to Medical Applications, Sendai, September 2004. [41] Chroust, St., Vincze, M., Improvement of the Prediction Quality for Visual Servoing with a Switching Kalman Filter, Int. Journal of Robotics Research, Vol. 22(10-11), pp. 905-922, October-November 2003. [42] Favre-Bulle, B., Busch, Ch., Feurstein, R., Bionic Solutions for Planar Tentacle Grippers, International Journal of Automation Austria, IJAA, 2003, Jg. 10/2. [43] Mahlknecht, S.; Oberhammer, R.; Novak, G.: A Real-time Image Recognition System for Tiny Autonomous Mobile Robots, 10th IEEE Real-Time and Embedded Technology and Applications Symposium (RTAS2004), Toronto, Canada, May 25-28, pp. 324-330
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