Feedback Control with ABB IRB 120 Through Matlab

Hello,

I have an ABB IRB 120 with an IRC5 Compact controller. I want to be able to create a feedback control through Matlab with a depth sensing camera, in order to generate and correct the path of the IRB 120 manipulator arm that has a schunk gripper on it as it performs a task. The depth sensing camera system is running through Matlab so I would like to make Matlab the central hub for processing data, controlling, and generating commands for the IRB 120 (Through RAPID?)

Much like how EGM offers EGM Position Guidance and Path Correction, I am wondering if anyone has any advise on how to start tackling this problem. I am very new to ABB and robot control in general, so any guidance is greatly appreciated.

I understand ROS (with ROS Industrial) and MoveIt exist as well, would that be better to explore? I appreciate any help!

Thank you.

Answer 1

[Hari]

Hi Liam Mohan,

I understand that you want to establish a feedback control system for an ABB IRB 120 robot using MATLAB, incorporating a depth-sensing camera for real-time path correction. And you want to use MATLAB as the central hub for processing and commanding the robot, possibly through RAPID programming.

I assume you have the MATLAB Robotics System Toolbox available. Additionally, I assume you have access to the necessary hardware setup, including the ABB IRB 120, the IRC5 Compact controller, and a depth-sensing camera compatible with MATLAB. You can follow the below steps to establish a feedback control system and incorporate depth-sensing camera:

1. Establishing Communication with the ABB Robot: Use the "robotics.ros.Node" and "robotics.ros.SimpleActionClient" functions in MATLAB to establish a ROS-based communication link with the ABB robot. This requires the robot to be set up with ROS Industrial, which acts as a bridge between RAPID and ROS.
2. Integrating the Depth Sensing Camera: Utilize MATLAB’s support for depth cameras (e.g., depthDevice object in the Image Acquisition Toolbox) to integrate your camera. Process the depth images to generate real-time feedback for the robot's path planning.
3. Feedback Control and Path Correction: Implement a feedback control loop in MATLAB. This involves reading the robot's current position (using ROS topics), comparing it with the desired position (from the depth camera), and calculating corrections. Use the "sendGoalAndWait" function from "robotics.ros.SimpleActionClient" to send corrected commands to the robot.

Refer to the documentation of Robotics System Toolbox for general robotics functions in MATLAB:

https://www.mathworks.com/help/robotics/

For ROS integration, see the ROS Toolbox documentation:

https://www.mathworks.com/help/ros/

Information on depth cameras in MATLAB can be found in the Image Acquisition Toolbox documentation:

https://www.mathworks.com/help/imaq/

Hope this helps!