LightRocks - Smart Robot Programming

LightRocks (Light Weight Robot Coding for Skills) represents a domain specific language that performs robot programming in models and therefore enhances robot programming bringing it to a new level. Complex applications such as assembly tasks can now be created and  executed by non-specialists without programming skills.   
The models are organized within four levels of abstraction. Within the two lower levels (Actions and Skills), an expert with the needed know-how prepares the primitive robot commands; these will then be introduced to the higher two levels (Tasks and Processes) where the user assembles them to create working robot commands. If needed, the user can adapt different variables, such as speed or stiffness. Adaptions made possible through the user can be extended or limited depending on the need. Upon completion of the programme, the robot-code is generated online. In theory, many different types of robot programming could be realized, therefore, LightRocks is not limited to a specific type of robot.

In order to create such an uncomplicated access for the user, we have developed a tablet-optimized app. Navigation within follows the ones known from standard smartphone and tables apps. As a result, the user navigates within known structures and can quickly gain the competency to create robot programmes. Time and often cost intensive training sessions become out-dated. In order to also identify weaknesses and to progress the development of the app, we regularly get the app tested by non-specialists.

Literature:

• [1] U. Thomas, G. Hirzinger, B. Rumpe, C. Schulze, A. Wortmann, "A New Skill Based Robot Programming Language Using UML/P Statecharts", Proceedings of the 2013 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), 2013, Karlsruhe, Germany.
• [2] A. Butting, B. Rumpe, C. Schulze, U. Thomas, A. Wortmann, "Modeling Reusable, Platform-Independent Robot Assembly Processes", IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), Workshop on Domain Specific Languages for Robotics (DSLRob 2015), 2015, Hamburg, Germany.