Automated programming of an industrial robot through teach-by showing

Intelligent Automation. Inc. (IAI) is developing a system that learns from demonstrations of a human operator and then produces a sensor-driven program that can control a robot without operator intervention. The system generates a procedural program, identical in function to a procedural program developed in a conventional robot programming language, that can be easily re-used in similar but different application tasks. In essence. based on skills demonstrated by a human teacher, a robot can be automatically programmed to perform complex assembly tasks. Robot users with no programming skills will be able to "bootstrap" themselves to semiautonomous operation after a small number of taught examples. In addition, as the task requirements change, the robot can be reprogrammed as easily as it was initially programmed. Unlike the conventional program development process, the operator need not postulate about the value of sensor feedback variables required at a particular level of the controller. In fact. the operator need not be familiar with the syntax and semantics of the programming language at all.