Controlling Kuka Industrial Robots: Flexible Communication Interface JOpenShowVar

Author

Sanfilippo, Filippo ; Hatledal, Lars Ivar ; Houxiang Zhang ; Fago, Massimiliano ; Pettersen, Kristin Ytterstad

Author_Institution

Dept. of Maritime Technol. & Oper., Aalesund Univ. Coll., Aalesund, Norway

Volume

22

Issue

4

fYear

2015

Firstpage

96

Lastpage

109

Abstract

JOpenShowVar is a Java open-source cross-platform communication interface to Kuka industrial robots. This novel interface allows for read-write use of the controlled manipulator variables and data structures. JOpenShowVar, which is compatible with all the Kuka industrial robots that use KUKA Robot Controller version 4 (KR C4) and KUKA Robot Controller version 2 (KR C2), runs as a client on a remote computer connected with the Kuka controller via TCP/IP. Even though only soft real-time applications can be implemented, JOpenShowVar opens up to a variety of possible applications, making the use of various input devices and sensors as well as the development of alternative control methods possible.

Keywords

Java; control engineering computing; human-robot interaction; industrial manipulators; public domain software; robot programming; telerobotics; transport protocols; JOpenShowVar; Java open-source cross-platform communication interface; KR C2; KR C4; KUKA robot controller version 2; KUKA robot controller version 4; Kuka industrial robots control; TCP/IP; data structures; flexible communication interface; manipulator variables; read-write use; remote computer; Computer architecture; Open source software; Real-time systems; Robot sensing systems; Service robots; Software development;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Robotics Automation Magazine, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1070-9932

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/MRA.2015.2482839

Filename

7349325