Definition and Initial Case-Based Evaluation of Hardware-Independent Robot Skills for Industrial Robotic Co-Workers

We propose a hierarchical action framework which facilitates easy and intuitive robot instruction, allowing non-experts to instruct and use industrial robots. The framework is based on flexible, generic and hardware-independent robot Skills, which are executed through the use of a Robot Virtual Machine. We demonstrate the feasibility of our approach through case studies of real industrial tasks which are not automated today, due to the high cost of reconfiguration.