Enabling Generic Robot Skill Implementation Using Object Oriented Programming

2025-08-14

AI Summary

Small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and research institutions face significant challenges in deploying robotic systems due to limited robotics expertise, heavy reliance on external system integrators, complex hardware interfaces, and poor cross-platform reusability. Method: This paper proposes a general-purpose robot software framework based on object-oriented design. Its core innovation is a unified abstraction model—“robot skill”—achieved through layered abstraction and modular encapsulation, which decouples hardware-specific implementations and standardizes control logic across heterogeneous platforms (e.g., Yaskawa Motoman GP4). Implemented in Python, the framework enables rapid integration into smart manufacturing systems. Contribution/Results: Experimental evaluation demonstrates that the framework substantially reduces interface complexity, shortens prototyping and deployment cycles, decreases dependency on external integrators, and improves both development efficiency and skill reusability across robotic platforms.

Technology Category

• Intelligent Robots: Manipulation
• Planning, Routing, and Scheduling: Model-Based Reasoning
• Multiagent Systems: Distributed Problem Solving

Application Category

• Systems and Infrastructure for Web, Mobile and WoT: Experiences and lessons learnt from Web-based algorithms and system deployments
• Responsible Web: Machine-in-the-loop, human agency and autonomy
• Web Mining and Content Analysis: Robustness and generalizability of Web mining methods

Abstract

Developing robotic algorithms and integrating a robotic subsystem into a larger system can be a difficult task. Particularly in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) where robotics expertise is lacking, implementing, maintaining and developing robotic systems can be a challenge. As a result, many companies rely on external expertise through system integrators, which, in some cases, can lead to vendor lock-in and external dependency. In the academic research on intelligent manufacturing systems, robots play a critical role in the design of robust autonomous systems. Similar challenges are faced by researchers who want to use robotic systems as a component in a larger smart system, without having to deal with the complexity and vastness of the robot interfaces in detail. In this paper, we propose a software framework that reduces the effort required to deploy a working robotic system. The focus is solely on providing a concept for simplifying the different interfaces of a modern robot system and using an abstraction layer for different manufacturers and models. The Python programming language is used to implement a prototype of the concept. The target system is a bin-picking cell containing a Yaskawa Motoman GP4.

Problem

• Simplifying robot system interfaces for easier deployment
• Reducing vendor lock-in in SME robotic implementations
• Enabling robotic skill abstraction across manufacturers and models

Innovation

• Object-oriented programming for robot skills
• Abstraction layer for diverse robot models
• Python-based prototype for simplified interfaces