Title :
Autonomous robot teaching using a smart robot in production line
Author :
Hongtai Cheng ; Heping Chen
Author_Institution :
Dept. of Mech. Eng. & Autom., Northeastern Univ., Shenyang, China
Abstract :
In industrial robot applications, to adapt the environmental changes the robot teaching process has to be performed frequently by operators. This process increases the operational cost and reduces the manufacturing efficiency. This paper proposes to use a smart robot(named “adult” robot) with advanced sensing and decision-making capabilities to teach “child” robots in the production line. A Markov Decision Process(MDP) is formulated and solved using Q-Learning to correct the “child” robot´s tool position. The proposed algorithm was implemented to teach an industrial robot (child) to perform a high accuracy peg-in-hole assembly process. The corresponding “adult” robot is a mobile robot platform with an in-hand camera. The experimental results verify the effectiveness of the proposed method. Since there is no calibration between the vision system, the “adult” robot and the “child” robot, the flexibility of the proposed method is greatly increased. Hence it can be easily applied in industrial applications where robot teaching is needed.
Keywords :
Markov processes; control engineering computing; decision making; intelligent robots; learning (artificial intelligence); mobile robots; robot programming; robot vision; robotic assembly; teaching; MDP; Markov decision process; Q-Learning; adult robot; advanced sensing; autonomous robot teaching; child robots; decision-making capabilities; industrial robot applications; manufacturing efficiency; mobile robot platform; operational cost; peg-in-hole assembly process; production line; smart robot; vision system; Cameras; Education; Robot kinematics; Robot vision systems; Service robots;
Conference_Titel :
Robotics and Biomimetics (ROBIO), 2013 IEEE International Conference on
Conference_Location :
Shenzhen
DOI :
10.1109/ROBIO.2013.6739724