Lead-through robot teaching

This paper presents a lead-through method and device for industrial robots and more particularly the design and calibration of a portable lead-through teaching device. Most industrial robots are programmed by a teach-and-playback approach. In some applications, maneuvering robots using the joystick or keypad on the teach pendant along the desired path is not easy or intuitive. To solve this problem, lead-through teaching methodologies have been developed by researchers from both academia and industries for more efficient and intuitive teaching of discrete point or continuous-path robot programs. We developed a portable lead-through teaching device, which is designed to be calibrated by moving the device to predetermined reference poses.