Next Generation Teach Pendants for Industrial Robots

Abstract

Teach pendants for industrial robots have sometimes been quite rudimentary in the past, and often enough users had to learn to cope with whatever is available. The necessity to conquer new markets and new application areas let industrial robot manufacturers rethink the way industrial robots are programmed and operated. In the cooperative research project MORPHA, KUKA Roboter explored new ways of human-robot interaction. This work led to a new industrial robot teach pendant prototype that comprises features that may generally be considered common features of the next generation of robot teach pendants: touch screen operation, task-oriented user interface, icon-based programming, a wireless connection between pendant and robot controller, and shared operation (one pendant – multiple robots). In addition, first steps towards Augmented Reality based user interaction were taken. This paper presents an overview of the results achieved during four years of theoretical and experimental studies.