Object‐oriented and distributed programming of robotic and automation equipment

This paper addresses some aspects related to Flexible Manufacturing Cell (FMC) programming, and is based on two previously published papers and focuses more on application details. Recognising that one of the major problems of today’s Flexible Manufacturing Cells is the diversity of languages and hardware architectures present in the same FMC, we introduce an object‐oriented and distributed software architecture that can be used for FMC programming and monitoring. Application examples of an industrial FMC and an R&D/education setup are presented, in which we used an industrial robot and a force/torque/acceleration sensor. In the process some implementation details are presented and discussed.