Robot system allows remote programming and control of metal part finishing
Location-Independent Robot-Assisted Finishing Using Digital Twins and Extended Reality
Human-Computer Interaction
Summary
Finishing metal parts made by 3D printing can be tricky and often requires hands-on work. The authors created a system where operators can program and control a finishing robot from anywhere using a virtual model called a digital twin. This model runs on a web platform and shows real-time robot movements, safety limits, and information about the metal surface. This setup helps operators decide when to reposition parts or stop the process without being physically near the robot. The system was tested successfully with smooth robot control and reasonable time delays for remote work.
Robot-assisted finishingDigital twinExtended realityAdditive manufacturingTeleoperationCollaborative robotWebGLMQTTKinematic constraintsSurface topography
Authors
Jose Outeiro, Jia Holt, Tero Kaarlela, Khalil Chakal
Abstract
This paper presents a cyber-physical system (CPS) for location-independent programming, supervision, training, and teleoperation of a Robot-Assisted Finishing (RAF) system used to post-process metal additive-manufactured (AM) components. A digital twin (DT) built in Unity is delivered to the operator as a WebGL application that supports both desktop and immersive modes through WebXR-compatible devices. Moreover, it exchanges robot state and pose commands with a collaborative robot through a Message Queuing Telemetry Transport (MQTT) broker. The DT enforces kinematic and collision constraints before a pose is released to the physical robot, and augments the virtual component with a color map of the surface topography that supports operator decisions on part repositioning or process termination. The architecture was validated on a specially designed physical RAF system. A steady-state joint synchronization error of 0.12 deg and a mean round-trip latency of 563 ms were measured, which is adequate for supervisory programming and intermittent teleoperation.