Flexible manufacturing systems take advantage of being composed of programmable equipment to implement most of their characteristics, which are supported by reconfigurable mechanical parts. Industrial robots are good examples of flexible manufacturing systems. Using Robots in actual manufacturing platforms is, therefore, a decision for flexibility and a way to increase the agility of the manufacturing process. If the manufacturing processes are complex, with low cycle time and have a lot of parameterization owing to the diversity of products, then using robots is the correct decision, although it isn’t enough for a complete solution.

Robot and Robotic cell Programming task would benefit very much from improved and easy-to-use interaction devices. This means that availability of software development kits (SDKs) and/or programming libraries supported under common programming environments is necessary. Application development depends very much on that.Working on future small and medium enterprises means considering humans and machines as co-workers, on environments where humans have constant access to the manufacturing equipment and related control systems

Several devices are available for user interfacing (several types of mouse, joysticks, gamepads and Controls digital pens, pocket PCs and personal assistants, cameras, different types of Sensors etc.) that have very nice characteristics making them good candidates for Industrial use. Integrating all these devices with current industrial equipment requires the development of a device interface, which exhibits some basic principles in terms of software, hardware and interface to commercial controllers.

Source: Robotics for small and medium enterprises: control and programming challenges. In: Industrial Robot Vol. 33, N°6, Emerald, 2006. Download pdf

Tech Materials (Free)

Robot Behaviors Exploring the T-Maze: Evolving Learning-Like Robot Behaviors using CTRNNs
Humanoid Robotics A Biochemical Subsystem for a Humanoid Robot
Industrial Automation Systems Applying Agents for Engineering of Industrial Automation Systems
Robot Team Cooperation A Descriptive Model of Robot Team and the Dynamic Evolution of Robot Team Cooperation
Kuka Robots For ONU ONU Robotics Technology Center of Excellence, powered by KUKA Robotics Corporation
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Modular Robots Self-Reconfiguration Planning Of Identical Modules
Autonomous robots A New Approach To Robotics
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Calibration of Industrial Robots A Photogrammetric Robot Calibration System Based On Off-The-Shelf Low Cost Hardware Components

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Amazon Books

	Creative Projects with LEGO Mindstorms by Benjamin Erwin Buy new: $20.64 / Used from: $13.00 A good place to start, especially for kids, with Lego Mindstorms
	A Practical Guide to Behavior-Based Robotics by Joe Jones Buy new: $20.67 / Used from: $15.13 Very good for programming not so much behavior as control. Language and controller agnostic