Development of man machine interface software for an industrial robot

This paper describes the design and implementation of a man machine interface software for the ABB IRB-2000 industrial robot. The main aim of this software is to provide features which would facilitate on-line/off-line programming of the robot. The software would provide a three dimensional graphical simulation of the robot and its environment, which also allows loading custom designed objects into the simulated environment. The software also offers collision detection capability between graphically simulated objects, an interpreter/editor to interpret/write robot programs in BASIC like language enhanced with robot commands. The facility to control the actual robot through the computer´s serial communication port is also provided.