Manual guidance for industrial robot programming

Purpose – This paper aims to deal with the problem of programming robots in industrial contexts, where the need of easy programming is increasing, while robustness and safety remain fundamental aspects. Design/methodology/approach – A novel approach of robot programming can be identified with the manual guidance that permits to the operator to freely move the robot through its task; the task can then be taught using Programming by Demonstration methods or simple reproduction. Findings – In this work, the different ways to achieve manual guidance are discussed and an implementation using a force/torque sensor is provided. Experimental results and a use case are also presented. Practical implications – The use case shows how this methodology can be used with an industrial robot. An implementation in industrial contexts should be adjusted accordingly to ISO safety standards as described in the paper. Originality/value – This paper presents a complete state-of-the-art of the problem and shows a real practical use case where the approach presented could be used to speed up the teaching process.