Tool Oriented Robot Cooperation

Defining paths for robot tools is mainly limited by workspace of the applied robot, yielding to difficulties in layout design and programming, especially in complex cells. Using the approach presented in this paper, only the tool is considered while programming. Thus, there are no limitations due to robots. The tool itself is mounted to an adapter, which can be linked to multiple robots allowing a coordinated transfer of the tool between them. Hence the system can be extended to a multi-robot system by an arbitrary number of robots, which are automatically positioned within the cell in a subsequent step.