Home Activities Bee-Up Controlling a Robot using Bee-Up

Controlling a Robot using Bee-Up

Investigate in advanced usage scenario of Bee-Up e.g. how a robot can be controlled using arbitrary modelling notations.

This scenario provides a short showcase of how models can be used to control robots. In this specific case the Bee-Up tool is used together with the OMiLab Robotic Arm.

The video shows how two of the models are used in the Bee-Up tool to control the OMiLab Robotic Arm 1 through accessing its REST web services. It makes use of the Bee-Up tool’s capability to execute AdoScript code in both the transitions of a Petri Net and in objects of a Flowchart. Both models contain the elements and code to call the necessary service of the robot arm so it performs the desired actions, moving the arm to the specified positions and picking up and dropping the objects.

Try it in OMILAB@University of Vienna

You can try it yourself using the OMiLAB node at the University of Vienna. This can be achieved by setting up the Bee-Up environment, accessing the OMiLab Robotic Arm available at the University of Vienna and executing the provided models. The result can be seen on the live video-feed of the robotic arm.

Setup

To setup the environment follow these simple steps:

  1. Download and install the Bee-Up Modelling Toolkit (1.4 or above).
  2. Download and import the scenario models for the University of Vienna setup into the Bee-Up tool (set “Import objects from other library” just to be safe).

For help with the steps and with Bee-Up in general you can check the Bee-Up manual. Before continuing it is also recommended to familiarize yourself with the Bee-Up tool, especially with its general modelling functionality and the Petri Net and Flowchart model types.

Access

It is also necessary to reserve a time slot for the OMiLAB Robotic Arm 1 (omiarm1), which can be achieved by going to its Authentication page. This is necessary to prevent multiple users from trying to control the robot at the same time. Note that reserving a time slot only works when you are registered and logged in on the OMiLAB page and time slots can only be reserved for the current day. While logged in you can also see your current security tokens.

Execute

Now you are ready to execute the models and see the robot in action through the provided live video-feed. When executing the models you will be asks to provide the security tokens through a popup (only the tokens separated by commas without the double quotes, e.g. IZlcua4qwmkTdg==,1rYGKR46SJeVWA==).

  • To execute the “ROBOT - Coffee Flowchart” or “ROBOT - Coffee Flowchart 2.0”: Simply click once on the “Execute” button of the Start Terminal.
  • To execute the “ROBOT - Coffee Petri Net”: The Petri Net allows you to manually fire each Transition by clicking once on its “Fire” button and provides some control over which path to take. You should either guide the mark (the Petri Net Token) through the net until it reaches “Contraption ready” again or you can use the “Initial state” State Storage to reset the Petri Net.

Try it in OMILAB@Faulmanngasse

An alternative way is to try it using the setup at OMiLAB in Faulmanngasse, Vienna. This also requires setting up the Bee-Up environment, accessing the OMiLAB Dobot Magician - 1 (Karl) Robotic Arm available at Faulmanngasse in Vienna and executing the provided models. The result can be seen on the live video-feed of the robotic arm.

Setup

To setup the environment follow these simple steps:

  1. Download and install the Bee-Up Modelling Toolkit (1.7 or above).
  2. Download and import the scenario models (older version 1.0) for the Faulmanngasse setup into the Bee-Up tool (set “Import objects from other library” just to be safe).

For help with the steps and with Bee-Up in general you can check the Bee-Up manual. Before continuing it is also recommended to familiarize yourself with the Bee-Up tool, especially with its general modelling functionality and the Petri Net and Flowchart model types.

Access

It is also necessary to reserve a time slot for the OMiLAB Dobot Magician - 1 (Karl), which can be achieved by going to the Laboratory Reservation Service. This is necessary to prevent multiple users from trying to control the robot at the same time. Note that reservations are only possible during specific times (details on page).

Execute

Now you are ready to execute the models and see the robot in action through the provided live video-feed. When executing the models you will be asks to provide the reservation token through a popup.

  • To execute the “2-Assembly Arm Supermarket Flowchart”: Simply click once on the “Execute” button of the Start Terminal.
  • To execute the “4-Dobot Magician Supermarket Petrinet”: The Petri Net allows you to manually fire each Transition by clicking once on its “Fire” button and provides some control over which path to take. You should either guide the mark (the Petri Net Token) through the net until it reaches “Contraption ready” again or you can use the “Initial state” State Storage to reset the Petri Net.