Fig. 1. General view of Robotics Laboratory
There are several groups of devices which let the users be acquainted with diverse robotics topics. All these groups are marked on the laboratory layout (Fig. 1). The main group is a robot cell, which contains the majority of devices. Real industrial robots are its basis. The next group is the robot dynamic parameters testbed. It includes the industrial robot which also belongs to a previously mentionned cell. There is another testbed independent of the first two device groups. This is a digital servo-drive with a DC motor. The motor type is identical to the type of motors installed in our industrial robots. Finally, the newest robotics facility must be mentionned here. This is a research robot made by our robotics group.
The essential part of the laboratory equipment are the additional facilities which provide safety measures for the people and the robots themselves. All robots are surrouneded with a safety fence and each of two gates through the fence is interlocked with robots so that robot motors are stopped if any of the gates is opened. For each robot a protective alarm switch was installed near the control computer enabling immediate stop of the robot upon tripping the switch.
Numbers in Fig. 1 indicate respectively: 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7 - PC computers; 8 - Motorola 68060 industrial computer; 4 - robot dynamic parameters testbed; 9, 20 - IRp-6 industrial robot controllers; 11 - CCD camera mounted on a fixed stand; 10 - conveyor belt; 14 - linear track; 15, 16 - IRp-6 industrial robots; 17 - maze; 12 - mechanical construction for the servodrive testbed; 13 - servo-controller of the servodrive testbed; 18 - mechanical part of the new POLYCRANK robot (under development); 19 - controller rack for the new robot (under development).
Robot cell consists of the following elements: (2, 9, 16) (1, 20, 14,15) (3, 11) (10, 17)
Testbed for robot consists of: 5, 4, 9, 16
Testbed for servodrive consists of: 6, 13, 12
Fast robot in progress consists of: 18, 19, 8, 7.