Automatic, situation-based control of multirobot systems applicable for collaborative work towards common goals in manufacturing processes

• Applicant: Professor Dr.-Ing. Günther Starke
• Subject Area: Production Automation and Assembly Technology
• Term: from 2010 to 2016
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 189384667

In manufacturing automation there is an emerging demand for multirobot applications which are capable of collaborating towards common goals in industrial manufacturing processes. The advantages of those applications are obvious in terms of reduced duty cycles, increased productivity, and considerable savings of costs. However the applicability of multirobot installations for production purpose seems to be restricted because of complex and time consuming programming procedures, but also due to the lack of open control systems which enable even heterogeneous robots to cooperate as a team in collaborative environments.To overcome these deficits, this project is focusing on research and technological development to enable robot teams to plan and coordinate the work autonomously and to assure robot movement free of any collision. Explicit programming should be avoided. In order to assure also the application of robot teams with systems from various suppliers, special focus is given to the development of an open control concept with an appropriate SoA-based infrastructure and common interface standards to enable interoperability in communication and interaction. Core element is a computer platform. It shall integrate all functions necessary to extract relevant data from an explicit description of the manufacturing process in a meta-format like XML, and to plan, coordinate, and control the robot work automatically. In this context special consideration will be given to the development of planning , optimization and control algorithms that are applicable to working environments that will change dynamically due to demands for workpiece reorientation during the manufacturing process. The results expected from research and technological development should be applicable for collaborative automation with teams built from standard industrial robots but also for systems with redundant kinematical structures. To prove the technical feasibility of the results, use-cases from the welding automation domain will be selected exemplarily because of the increasing demand for multirobot installations with advanced planning and control capabilities in this industrial sector.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• Participating Person: Professor Dr.-Ing. Paul Drews (†)