An Approach in the Design of an AR-Enhanced Robot Programming Platform for Educational Desktop Robot Arm

Low-cost desktop robot arms have been increasingly used in education and research, and conventional robot programming methods often require a higher level of expertise and can be time-consuming. Hence, Augmented Reality (AR) technology has rapidly evolved in recent years, revolutionizing the way humans interact with and perceive digital and physical environments. In this paper, an approach to the design of an AR-enhanced platform for intuitive robot programming intended for educational purposes is presented. The system is developed using the Unity game engine, and an Android application has been created. During the system’s conceptualization phase, besides user-friendliness, special attention was given to ensuring ease of development. RoboDK, a cross-platform robot simulation and programming environment is integrated with Unity, and its integrated numerical inverse kinematics solvers and path planner functionalities are used for trajectory generation. AR-supported GUI for intuitive robot programming has been created. The system’s validation is conducted on a 6DoF desktop robot arm produced using 3D printing technology.