Open Source Real-Time Control Software for the Kuka Light Weight Robot

Schöpfer M, Schmidt F, Pardowitz M, Ritter H. Open Source Real-Time Control Software for the Kuka Light Weight Robot. In: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, ed. Proc. of World Congress on Intelligent Control and Automation. Jinan, China: IEEE; 2010: 444-449.The Kuka light weight robot offers unique features to researchers. Besides its 7 Degrees of Freedom (DOF), also torque sensing in every joint and a variety of compliance modes make the robot a good choice for robotic research. Unfortunately the interface to control the robot externally has its restrictions. In this paper, we present an open source solution (OpenKC) that will allow the control of the robot externally using a simple set of routines that can easily be integrated in existing software. All features and modes of the Kuka light weight robot can be used and triggered externally. Simultaneous control of several robots is explicitly supported. The software has proven its use in several applications