Experiments Comparing Precision of Stereo-Vision Approaches for Control of an Industrial Manipulator

Abstract

Despite years of research in the area of robotics, the vast majority of industrial robots are still used in "teach-repeat" mode. This requires that the workpiece be in exactly the same position and orientation every time. In many high-volume robotics applications, this is not a problem, since the parts are likely to be fixtured anyway. However, in small to medium lot applications, this can be a significant limitation. The motivation for this project was a corporation who wanted to explore the use of visual control of a manipulator to allow for automated teaching of robot tasks for parts that are run in small lot sizes.

Teaching Industrial Robot Manipulators by Easy to Use Interface Systems

“…Yoder at al. [1] compared the precision of a stereo vision based system for teaching robot manipulator motion. Miura and Ikeuchi [2] observed the human operator during task performance to program the robot.…”