A man-machine interface software system for the design, modeling and simulation of robotic and automation systems

This paper describes the development and use of a man-machine interface software package used to demonstrate and develop robot control programs. These programs are used to integrate an industrial robot into various automation systems for laboratory investigations. The software package is a menu driven, user friendly, interactive and real time development and training system. The software program, and associated hardware, allows a novice user to develop robot control programs without prior knowledge of the specific robot system software. At the same time the program allows the more experienced user to develop sophisticated robot control programs using many of the standard features provided for in the man-machine software package. The system is configured around a Unimation PUMA 560 robot with the VAL II operating system[4]. VAL II versions 1.4b and 2.0 are used for this application. Standard PUMA hardware used for this project consists of a VAL II controller, CRT terminal and keyboard, floppy disk drive, teach pendant and digital I/O interfaces[5].