Generating complex surfaces for robot milling and engraving tasks: Using images for robot task definition

The paper presents a software system created to allow to use a user-friendly interface in order to describe complex surfaces which a robot system will follow, with applications in robot milling or engraving. The experimental system used for testing is composed by a 6 degree of freedom IRB 140 ABB robot with tools for engraving of milling, having the PC Interface option for communication and a PC which is executing a CAD application used to define the surface needed by the robot in order to execute the desired task. The robot task is defined using STL 3D objects or images in order to obtain the trajectory of the robot depending on the surface designed in the application. This task can be accomplished using multiple methods which are described in the paper. The algorithm which generates the trajectory is presented, and the paper present also the preliminary results obtained.