Manipulation System Design for Industrial Robot Manipulators Based on Tablet PC

Along with the progress of robot technology, nowadays industrial robot manipulators are applied for more diverse and complex tasks. Consequently, the conventional manipulative devices, such as the teaching pendant and keyboard, become unsuitable for task teaching or planning. Motivated by it, in this paper, we propose a new type of manipulation system for industrial robot manipulators based on tablet PC. With wireless communication, the proposed system provides flexibility for remote manipulation. In addition, a graphical interface and several assistive tools are equipped for viewing and maneuvering tasks during execution, allowing the operator to conduct the task in a more intuitive way. We conducted experiments using both the proposed manipulation system and conventional manipulative device.