Accurate and versatile automation of industrial kitting operations with SkiROS

Abstract

The low automation level of industrial manufacturing processes, in conjunction with the limited research in the field of object manipulation for placing tasks, rise the need for adaptive and accurate industrial robotic systems that can manipulate a variety of objects in an uncertain environment. We deal with those issues by providing insights into two modules of a skilled-based architecture, the SkiROS. Those modules are applied on the placing part of an industrial kitting operation and can lead to versatile perception of the environment and the accurate placing of objects in confined areas. We evaluate both modules in terms of accuracy, execution time and success rate in various setups of the environment. Also we evaluate the whole kitting pipeline - including the proposed modules - as a unit in terms of repeatability and execution time. The results show that the proposed system is capable to both accurately localize the kitting box and place the object in its narrow compartments.