Coordinated Control of a Collaborative 6R Robotic Arm With a Virtual Twin and Augmented Reality for Engineering Education

Abstract

This work describes the direct and inverse kinematics mathematical framework, the development procedure, and data communications interface for the implementation of an augmented reality version of a six degrees of freedom (6-DOF) cobot (collaborative robot) under the Unity platform. The kinematic equations for the inverse kinematic control of the Techman® cobot are presented. The procedure to achieve communication between the virtual robot and the physical robot is described, that is, the communication link from the TM5-900 robot with the application in Unity. A safe environment was created to manipulate the collaborative robot and to avoid collisions to validate the applicability of the augmented reality functionality. The virtual twin with its enhanced visualization based on augmented reality can also run-on mobile devices either locally or remotely accessed. The developed platform has diverse potential applications and in particular is suitable for engineering education and training in robotics.