Design of Augmented Reality-Based Android App for Simulation and Programming of Industrial Robots

Growing customer requirements and global competition are factors that cause the integration of industrial robots and Industry 4.0 solutions increasingly. There is a high demand for robotics and automation solutions that are cost-effective, safe, and easy to install and reprogram, where the operator can work with the complex robots to solve unpredictable problems, and that can be adapted by small and medium-sized enterprises (SME). The Industry 4.0 paradigm triggered the use of Augmented Reality (AR), which has become a popular multidisciplinary research field over the last decade, in industrial facilities. In this paper, the application of AR for the simulation and programming of industrial robots is presented and demonstrated for a case of 6DoF industrial robot RL15. The design of an AR-based mobile Android app that facilitates the simulation and programming of industrial robots is proposed. The virtual robot model has been developed in Unity software based on the robot CAD model. Simulation of robot movements using the designed AR android app allows users to program, test and verify the desired robot trajectories by incorporating 3D robot virtual model motion into a real-world environment obtained from an android device in real-time.