Programming and wireless control of a wafer manipulation SCARA robot using a mobile device

The research performed by the authors had the purpose of developing a control and programming application for a 3-axes SCARA robot designed for wafer manipulation and integrating it with a mobile device capable of wireless communication. The mobile device was then used to command axis movements, internal signals and for programming. The application was developed as a user-interface capable of communicating with robot's controller and converting the user inputs into controller commands. In order to achieve position control, the direct kinematic model of the robot was developed. Furthermore, the application was integrated with the V-REP virtual simulation platform in order to achieve simulation and offline programming capabilities - the V-REP software provided the 3-D environment and the kinematics modelling functions required to perform the simulation while receiving commands from the developed application. Finally, a few demonstrative applications were configured in order to test the functionality of the system. The research has important implications in the field of industrial wireless communication, being a step towards more flexible robotic applications, full integration of remote operation technologies and easier access to remote production facilities.