Automatic Synthesis of Robot Programs from CAD Specifications

Industrial robots require more and more advanced programming tools. After “teaching by showing” techniques, manipulator-level programming languages for describing tasks by sequences of robot operations have emerged, and they to-day become widespread in industry. However, writting manipulators-level programs is not easy. This difficulty arises the need for higher level languages called task-level languages, for describing assembly tasks as sequences of goal spatial relationships between objects. Translating such a description into a manipulator-level program requires to solve three main problems: grasp planning, path planning, and fine motion planning. This paper surveys recent progress toward solving these problems. Task-level languages may deeply transform the way we will program robots in the future, and they contribute to better CAD/CAM integration.

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