Remote control within the UJI Robotics Manufacturing Cell using FPGA-based vision

In this paper we present a work in progress of a new remote control system based on networked robots and FPGAs technology. The experimental validation has been carried out within the UJI (i.e. the acronym for University Jaume I) Robotics Manufacturing Cell. The main devices included in this Cell are: a SCARA manipulator (AdeptOne), a robot arm with six degrees of freedom (Motoman), an industrial belt, several sensors and cameras, an FPGA that takes care of the computer vision algorithms (i.e. including grasping determination), and a distributed architecture that allows any user to control remotely via Internet a specific manufacturing task. The different components of this system are connected by a 100BaseT Ethernet network and follow the SNRP architecture (i.e. Simple Network Robot Protocol), which grants simple access to generic networked devices using enhanced IP (i.e. Internet Protocol) based connections. Moreover, every device in the system is connected to the Internet through a router that permits the user to control the networked devices according to security constraints. The experiments presented in this paper are concerned with learning visual servoing loops in a direct manner. To this end, the industrial Robotics Cell includes a FPGA, which significantly improves the performance of the computer vision algorithms, and then greatly enhances the efficiency of the remote visual servoing control. Results show the system performance of remotely programmed visual servoing controls using different network architectures.