ROBxTASK – Cloud platform for vendor-independent exchange of robot control tasks and processes

Depending on the application scenario, robots offer manufacturer-specific programming interfaces that require specialized technical knowledge of hardware and software development for each device and task. However, robots often perform very similar tasks for their users across all areas of application.

A typical example in production is picking up, delivering, and handing over an object—a skill that is also useful in the care sector. Conversely, social robots are becoming more capable of human-robot collaboration (HRC) thanks to cognitive abilities like gesture recognition and emotion and stress interpretation with the help of camera algorithms and wearable sensors. These abilities are also becoming increasingly important in production when collaborative robots are used.

Currently, the lack of tools for defining tasks across different robots results in an additional workload when programming different target systems and robot models. In order to maintain the growth potential of robotics, the increasing complexity resulting from the use of increasingly powerful modern robot models must be counteracted by easy-to-use user interfaces.

Goals

Therefore, the aim of ROBxTASK is to decouple high-level process descriptions from specific robot systems. This promotes interoperability by facilitating the exchange of structured expert knowledge across different application areas.

This goal is achieved through an interdisciplinary, human-centered, cross-application approach via an internet platform. The platform is intended to:

• Extend an existing ontology of robotic capabilities into new areas of application
• Develop reusable translation modules for converting process descriptions into executable programs for different target systems.
• Offer web-based services for exchanging process descriptions
• Enable the exchange of formalized expert knowledge via Internet platforms
• Connecting robotics and domain experts across different application domains
• Validate the reusability of robotic tasks in different application scenarios with social and industrial robots in laboratories (TRL4)

Easy sharing and combination of robot tasks and capabilities

ROBxTASK enables the easy transfer and combination of tasks and capabilities of social and industrial robots.

Domain experts can use it to create templates for robotic tasks, including human-machine interactions. Robot programmers can then implement these templates in different target systems or simulation environments. This reusability reduces costs and enables additional user-centric services for knowledge exchange. These services include indexing created task modules, developing complex task descriptions step by step, jointly developing specific robot functions, and providing easy-to-use faceted search functions based on ontological concepts.

To promote cross-domain solution development in the form of a co-creative ecosystem, ROBxTASK incorporates various interest groups of potential platform users into the development process through design fiction workshops.