Direct off-line robot programming via a common CAD package

TL;DR

This paper introduces a CAD-based system for intuitive off-line robot programming directly from 3-D CAD drawings, simplifying robot path generation for users with basic CAD and robotics knowledge.

Contribution

It presents a novel method for automatic extraction and mapping of robot motion data from CAD models to real environments, enabling accessible robot programming.

Findings

Effective automatic extraction of robot motion data from CAD drawings

Successful application to various manipulation tasks

Demonstrated versatility and ease of use

Abstract

This paper focuses on intuitive and direct off-line robot programming from a CAD drawing running on a common 3-D CAD package. It explores the most suitable way to represent robot motion in a CAD drawing, how to automatically extract such motion data from the drawing, make the mapping of data from the virtual (CAD model) to the real environment and the process of automatic generation of robot paths/programs. In summary, this study aims to present a novel CAD-based robot programming system accessible to anyone with basic knowledge of CAD and robotics. Experiments on different manipulation tasks show the effectiveness and versatility of the proposed approach.