Wireless Control of Industrial Robot

Abstract: The purpose of this project was to investigate if it is possible to have local wireless control of an industrial robot. This was achieved by first doing a diversity of research. Based on the research, the project was conceptualized and a real-life product was developed showcasing the functionality. The standard robot set up as of today consists of three main parts: A robot, a control unit and a handheld controller device, called Teach Pendant. All of these parts are connected with long aggravating cables. The cables cause inconvenience and can in some cases introduce unnecessary risks in the factory. Can this hardware be removed, and an overall more convenient use case be developed? The product was developed by programming an application on a Windows tablet. Further, a Bluetooth Low Energy server was created to handle the communication between the tablet and the robot control unit. The final product consisted of a tablet, a single-board computer, a robot and a control unit. The tablet is what replaces the Teach Pendant as a handheld device. The tablet is connected to the singleboard computer via Bluetooth. The single-board computer acts as a Bluetooth server and sends out advertisements for the tablet to detect. When the tablet detects a nearby robot it can then connect to it and send start and stop commands. The server then forwards it to the control unit which finally sends the data to the robot control unit to execute. The project shows that it is possible to develop wireless robot control. It showcases a potential solution on how one could set it up. However, the final product developed had a simple functionality compared to the wired Teach Pendant. To manage the same capacity as the wired Teach Pendent, further development is required.