Control layer for multi-vendor industrial robot interaction providing integration of supervisory process control and multifunctional control units

Based on recent industrial needs for a flexible integration of supervisory control systems and novel intuitive manual control units a new control layer is introduced. The control layer affords adaptive behaviour in terms of process and motion planning as well as flexible manual control of arbitrary robot controllers. It is located between the industrial robot controller and the control units. For the purpose of a flexible manufacturer-independent access to the robot controller we define an object-oriented programming interface. The set of robot commands is manufacturer-independent and includes all basic robot functions regarding motion and program control. An inherent capability of the control layer is the transformation of neutral object-oriented robot commands to manufacturer-specific robot languages. With an emphasis on the development of a flexible control layer, we aim for a media-independent communication solution. In order to cover a broad range of robotic applications, different communication standards of industrial automation are implemented. Finally, two applications, a smartphone robot control and a distributed robot control system, are presented and discussed.