ROS-Unity3D based system for monitoring of an industrial robotic process

Abstract

Abstract-Planning and monitoring the manufacturing of high quality one-of-a-kind products are challenging tasks. In the implementation of an industrial system, the commissioning phase is typically comprised of a programming phase and an optimization phase. Most of the resources are commonly invested in the optimization of the process. The time and cost of the implementation can be reduced if the monitoring system is not embedded in the industrial process, but kept instead as a decoupled task. In this paper we present a framework to simulate and execute the monitoring task of an industrial process in Unity3D, without interfering with the original system. The monitoring system is made of external additional equipment and is decoupled from the industrial task. The monitoring robot's path is subject to multiple constraints to track the original process without affecting its execution. Moreover, the framework is flexible thanks to the Unity-ROS communication so that the monitoring task can be carried on by any ROS-compatible device. The monitoring system has been applied to a robotic system for heavy, multi-pass TIG welding of voluminous work-pieces. The results of the implementation show that the constraints for monitoring were satisfactory in the 3D environment and capable for real robot application.

iviz: A ROS visualization app for mobile devices

“…There are multiple projects in literature combining ROS with VR [12], [13] and AR [14], [15], especially in an industrial setting [16]. While AR in robotics is not exactly new, and VR even less, they have seen an explosion in growth in the last five to seven years following the appearance of affordable, off-theshelf devices with accurate and robust user tracking, such as the HTC Vive for VR and the Microsoft Hololens for AR.…”

ROS middle-layer integration into Unity3D as an interface option for propulsion drive simulations of autonomous vehicles

“…ROS was used for performance calculation applying an empirical performance model for the induction motor (IM). In this research Unity3D is used as a visualization tool, which is connected with ROS directly [13]. Even though Unity3D simulated most of the motor's physical behaviour (torque and rotation), the response and the received numerical values, unfortunately, do not suit the DT development in the long run.…”

Navigation Simulation of a Mecanum Wheel Mobile Robot Based on an Improved A* Algorithm in Unity3D

“…In the simulator, Unity3D exchanges information with MATLAB to execute different proposed control algorithms. In paper [43], a ROS-Unity3D based system is introduced for the monitoring of an industrial robotic process as well as a framework to simulate and execute an industrial process monitoring task in Unity3D. In paper [44], a novel real-time three-dimensional simulation system, ROSUnitySim, is presented using ROS and Unity3D, for local planning by miniature unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in cluttered environments.…”