A lead-through robot programming approach using a 6-DOF wire-based motion tracking device

A lead-through robot programming solution with a 6-DOF motion tracking device is presented. The motion tracking device is flexible-linked and can be fixed on the end-effector of a robot to realize lead-through teaching. The programming solution covers data acquiring from the six string sensors of the motion tracking device, data processing, kinematical calculation which converts the sensor signals to the motion tracking device pose, motion planning which generates robot jogging command based on poses of the tracking device and the robot, path recording, smoothing and final robot program generating which takes the recorded path as the input thus a robot can repeat the taught path. A prototype has been built up to verify the programming solution with sound results. With the prototype, different teaching modes can be applied to adapt to different teaching requirements and different application areas.