Control of industrial robots

MSc in Automation and Control Engineering
MSc in Computer Science and Engineering
MSc in Electronics Engineering
MSc in Engineering Physics

Prof. Paolo Rocco

Schedule

MO 10:15-12:15 room B.2.4

WE 12:15-14:15 room 5.02

Integrated version of the course

The course can be taken as a standalone 5 credits course or as a module of the integrated course Control of industrial and mobile robots.

Information on the other module (Control of mobile robots) is available at this link:

http://bascetta.deib.polimi.it/index.php/CMR-Aut

Learning objectives and course syllabus

The goal of this course is to present current and advanced methodologies for the control of robotic manipulators. The course covers selected topics ranging from kinematic and dynamic modelling of an industrial robot, to advanced motion planning and control, to control of the interaction of the robot with the environment. The goal of the course is fully aligned with the overall goals of the Automation and Control Engineering Program, while being an excellent complement for students enrolled in other Programs (Computer Science and Engineering, Electronics Engineering, Engineering Physics, and others).

A mix of theoretical and industrially relevant topics characterizes the course, where extensive use of software for simulation and offline programming of robots will be made.

The expected learning outcomes of the course belong to the technological and design area of the expected learning outcomes of the Program.

Specifically, at the end of the course, the student:

-understands the role of industrial robots in the factory, why and where they should be used in the production systems;
-uses mathematics to describe the motion of a robot, in terms of both kinematics and dynamics;
-plans a suitable motion for the robot both in free environment and in presence of obstacles;
-tunes an industrial motion control system and understand the rationale and potentialities of advanced nonlinear model based control strategies;
-manages the control of the interaction of the robot with the environment, either with force or with vision sensors;
-understands and masters the new trends in industrial robotics, like collaborative robotics;
-masters software programs to simulate and to offline program the robots.

Course syllabus is as follows:

Introduction

Industrial robots: basic concepts and examples. Market of industrial robotics. Trends in industrial robotics.

Advanced robot kinematics

Review of direct, inverse and differential kinematics. Kinematic calibration. Kinematics of redundant manipulators: methods for redundancy resolution.

Robot dynamics

Dynamic models of robot manipulators. Euler-Lagrange and Newton-Euler formulations. Main properties. Identification of dynamic parameters. Direct and inverse dynamics.

Advanced motion planning

Review of motion generation in joint space and in operational space. Concatenation of paths. Path planning with obstacle avoidance. Kinematic and dynamic scaling of trajectories. Interpolation of points (splines).

Control of robot manipulators

Review of independent joint control methods. Centralized model-based controllers: computed torque feedforward control, PD control with gravity compensation, inverse dynamics control, robust and adaptive control. Operational space control.

Interaction with the environment

Force sensors. Impedance and admittance control. Hybrid position/force control.

Control with vision sensors

Image processing. Camera calibration. Image-based and position-based control systems. Interaction matrix and image Jacobian.

Collaborative robotics

Human-robot interaction. Safety standards. Collaborative robots (cobots): advantages and examples of use.

Some of the practice sessions will make use of computer simulation tools and of commercial tools for robot offline programming.

Prerequisites

Basics in Automatic Control and Mechanics.

Bibliography

B. Siciliano, L. Sciavicco, L. Villani, G. Oriolo: Robotics: Modelling, Planning and Control, 3rd Ed., Springer, 2009 (in English)

B. Siciliano, L. Sciavicco, L. Villani, G. Oriolo: Robotica: modellistica, pianificazione e controllo 3a ed., McGraw Hill, 2008 (in Italian)

G. Magnani, G. Ferretti, P. Rocco Tecnologie dei sistemi di controllo, 2a ed., McGraw Hill, 2007 (in Italian)

Lecture notes

Introduction to the course

Industrial robotics

Review of robot kinematics

Kinematic calibration

Kinematic redundancy

Robot dynamics

Review of basic motion planning

Advanced motion planning

Review of the independent joint control method

Centralized control

Control of the interaction

Lab sessions with MATLAB/Simulink/Robotics Toolbox

In order to participate in the lab activities, students need to bring their own laptop with them.

You need to install your own copy of MATLAB/Simulink. Instructions how to download and install your free copy of MATLAB are available here:

https://www.software.polimi.it/mathworks-matlab/?lang=en

You also need to install an additional toolbox, the Robotics Toolbox by Peter Corke. The instructions to download and install the toolbox (latest release is 10.4) are available at:

https://petercorke.com/toolboxes/robotics-toolbox/

Please notice that this is not the toolbox on robotics delivered by The MathWorks. Functionalities of the toolbox have been checked with success with recent versions of MATLAB until R2019b.

A manual of the toolbox is available.

Depending on the way you installed the toolbox, in order to run the toolbox you may need to issue the initialization command:

startup_rvc

Lab sessions with ABB RobotStudio

RobotStudio is a professional virtual environment for offline programming of robots, interfaced with a virtual controller.

Please install beforehand your own copy of RoboStudio. You can download the software at the following address:

https://new.abb.com/products/robotics/robotstudio

Please notice that it is a somewhat heavy download (about 2 GB). Also the program runs only in a Microsoft Windows PC.

Following the instructions available at the above web page, you should fill a form to request your own copy of the software and then, after installation, activate a free license that is valid for 30 days. Interested students can ask us for a license for educational purposes (we have several of them).

Once you have installed RobotStudio, you also need to install the appropriate RobotWare for our lab sessions. Follow these instructions:

-open RobotStudio

-select the tab "Add-ins"

-select the version 6.11.02 of the RobotWare IRC5 and install it

Once the installation is complete, by selecting again the tab "Add-ins", the installed RobotWare will show up under the installed packages. Please proceed to the installation of the RobotWare before the lab session.

Exams

Students will take a written examination, integrated by an oral one at the instructor's discretion. Text of the exam will be in English, solutions should preferably be given in English.

Texts of exams are published here.

Exams made in written form

August 27, 2024 [Integrated version of the exam]

July 23, 2024 [Integrated version of the exam]

June 18, 2024 [Integrated version of the exam]

February 6, 2024 [Integrated version of the exam]

January 22, 2024 SOLUTION [Integrated version of the exam SOLUTION]

September 7, 2023 [Integrated version of the exam]

July 10, 2023 [Integrated version of the exam]

June 15, 2023 [Integrated version of the exam]

February 9, 2023 [Integrated version of the exam]

January 11, 2023 SOLUTION [Integrated version of the exam SOLUTION]