ESPRIT INITIATIVES IN ROBOTICS:

ACHIEVEMENTS AND PERSPECTIVES

P. MacConaill and B. Lewendon
FSI'IUT C/.\/. 0(;.\/11. CIJIllIlli.'"lilJlI oF thl' 1::lInJ/J1'!1II C(JIII 11111 lIitin.
Ihn"t!.I. Hl'lgilllll

Abstract The paper summarises the objectives and structure of the European Strategic Programme of
Research and development in Information Technology (ESPRIT) with particular reference to the work on
Computer Integrated Manufacturing (CIM) and focusing on achievements in the field of robotics. The
direction of future robotics work in ESPRIT is indicated and the importance of integration and commu ni-
cations emphasised. A description of CIM Europe, an important mechanism for the disse minati on of
ESPRIT CIM results, is included.

Keywords Research and development; comp uter integrated manufacturing; industrial control; robots;
sensors; factory communications.

INTRODUCTION The first phase of ESPRIT, launched in February 1984,

The European Strategic Programme of Research and develop-
ment in Information Technolog y (ESPRIT), initiated in 1984 ,
is now entering its second phase. The objec tives of the pro-
gramme are to:
• promote European industrial cooperation in preco mpe titive
research and development in IT;
• provide the European IT indu str y with the basic tech nolo-
gies it is going to need, in a five to ten yea r time ho ri zo n;
• actively encourage the definiti o n and adop tio n of co mmon
sta ndards to break down the technical barriers to the evolu-
tion of IT techniques.
resulted in 227 projects, many of which have now been com-
pleted. This phase brought together nearly 3000 IT profes-
sionals from some 500 companies , universities and resea rch
in stitutions.
The second phase of the programme, just about to begin, will
nearly double the available resources. The first Call for
Proposals under this phase was issued earlier this year; 650
proposals were submitted, of which 158 were approved for
contract negotiation . Under this Call 30% of the programme
has been allocated to Microelectronics and Peripherals, 30% to
Information Processi ng Syste ms, 20% to Computer Integrated
Manufacturing (CIM) and 20% to Office Syste ms.
A further Call for Proposa ls is expected in 1989.

Each ESPRIT project involves collaboration between industrial

organisations and other institutions from the various member COI>IPUTER INTEGRATED MANUFACTURING
states of the Community. The Community co ntribut es up to
half the costs of each project. With th e launc h of the second Th e objectives of ESPRIT in Computer Integrated Manufac-
phase of the programme the total Comm unit y funds authorised turing are:
for ESPRIT amount to 2350 milli on ECU, so that the total
resources involved are in the region of 4.7 billion ECU. (The • to stre ngthen the capability of indigenous European Com-
ECU is the European Currency Unit, defined in term s of the munity CIM vendors, and
currencies of the Community membe r states. in which all EC
budgets are denominated . Its current va lue is about 1.2 US • to improve the competitiveness of European Community
dollars.) manufacturing industry.

Each project mu st have at least two industrial part ners from
two different member states. We also like to see. where
appropriate, the participation of both use rs and \"endors, and
of academic and research institutio ns. Some care is taken to
ensure that Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) are
adequately repre se nted . To ensure the achie\'ement of the
strategic goals of the programme. at least 75% of the pro-
gramme is devoted to projects fulfillin g spec ifi cally defined
Objectives and with measurable achie\"ements (Type A) as
compared with those of a mOre exploratory nature (Type Bl.
The strateg y which has been adopted is to identify integration
paths based on open system concepts and de\'elop the associ-
ated methods and tools, to develop subsys tems capable of
exploitation within this framework, and to demonstrate the
success of this approach and its benefits by early implementa-
ti o n in a wide range of production en\"ironments.
The target is to expand the Community share of the elM mar-
ket in Europe to a level of domination and to also achieve a
significant penetration of non-Ee markets.

ESPRIT participants retain intell ectua l property ri gh ts o\"e r the The 150 participants in the 32 elM projects initiated under
project results, although there are certain Obligati ons to di s- the first phase of ESPRIT comprise, approximately:
seminate general outlines o f the project findings to th e public
domain. Although ESPRIT projects are concerned with pre- • 78 large industrial co mpanies
compelilire research and de\"elopment the project partners. on
entering into an ESPRIT contract. are requ ired to sta te how • 30 small and medium sized enterprises
they intend to exploit the project's achiel"eme nt s and the early
exploitation of intermediate project resu lt s and sp in- offs i's • 4~ universities and researc h institutions
actively encouraged.

17
IH P. \lacConaill and B. Le\\'en<ion
The ESPRIT CIM programme is currently structured into five
topic areas:
• Architecture and Communications,
• Manufacturing Systems Design and Implementation,
• Product Design and Analysis Systems,
• Management and Control of Manufacturing Processes,
• Robotics and Shop Floor Systems.
ARCHITECTURE AND COMMUNICATIONS
Companies with existing investments in computer assisted
design and manufacture are well aware of the difficulties in
interconnecting the equipment of different suppliers. There
are frequently incompatibilities of languages , data structures,
data formats and communications protocols. These are the
cause of much frustration , delay and expense (accounting for
some 50-70% of CIM implementation costs). This greatly
inhibits progress , especially in the smaller manufacturing com-
panies.
A number of CIM projects are particularly addressing this
problem area. Each of these projects has a carefully balanced
consortium where the involvement of a broad spectrum of
users and vendors ensures a pragmatic approach and
widespread adoption of the results. Substantial contributions
have been made to international standards for CIM.
Included in this group is project 955 (Communication Network
for Manufacturing Applications - CNMA). The objective of
this project is to promote , implement and validate emerging
international standards for electronic communications in
industry , addressing shop floor and office environments. The
project is closely associated with the MA P and TOP initiatives
in the US, and has had a significant influence on the devel-
opment of international communication standards, in particular
ISO DIS 9506 which covers Manufacturing Message Specifica-
tion (MMS), which is a major application service to be
included in MAP 3.0. The CNMA team includes six major IT
vendors (Bull, GEC, ICL, Nixdorf, Olivetti, Siemens) five
users Aeritalia, BMW, British Aerospace, ELF, Peugot) and
two systems houses (TITN and FHG-IITB) .
Very successful demonstrations of the communications net-
works, including the first public demonstration of features of
MAP version 3.0, took place at the 1987 Hannover Fair, and at
the MAP/ TOP/COS Enterprise Network Event at Baltimore,
Maryland in June 1988 , by way of a sa tellite link from the
British Aerospace pilot plant at Salmesbury (UK). Pilot
implementations have recently been commissioned in a new
vehicle assembly plant at BMW (D), in an airframe component
manufacturing plant at British Aerospace (UK), and in a
wiring harness manufacturing plant at Aeritalia (I). The BMW
pilot at Regensburg is the first produ ct ion facility in the world
to use MMS.
The project has issued two implementation guides detailing the
profi le of specifications adopted and advising on how these
should be used to achieve ir,terworking in a vendor-indepen-
dent environment. It has also developed a suite of confor-
mance testing tools to accelerate the acceptance of emerging
communications standards.
The pilot applications described above include the use of
robots. They consequently demon strate the possi bilities of the
functional integration of robots with the wider factory envi-
ronment.
ROBOTICS AND SHOP FLOOR SYSTEMS
The implementation of information technologies in CIM
require advances in the technologies used on the shop floor.
These enabling technologies need to be de\'eloped jointly by
users and vendors of IT equipment. To ensure maximum
exploitation potential , priority has been given to the develop-
ment of technologies which either present strong market
opportunities for European \'endors or which lie on the critical
path of the successful implementation of CIM s\·stems. These
include systems for flexible machining and asse~bly, advanced
robot and machine tool control, and multi-media data capture
and interpretation .
The aim of project 623 (Operational Control for Robot Sys tem
Integration into CIM) is to provide methods and tools for the
functional integration of robot systems into CIM. Subsystems
for explicit robot programming, the planning of assembly
operations and optimising production layouts have been devel-
oped and are being used by KUKA (D) and Renault Automa-
tion (F) in the design and implementation of real production
systems. Consortium members have played a leading role in
the development of the IRDA TA robot programming language
which is now being prepared by ISO TC 184 as a Draft Pro-
posal. Other partners in the consortium are Fraunhofer IPK,
FIAR, University of Karlsruhe, and University College of
Galway.
Project 118 (General Purpose Sensory Controlled Systems for
Parts Production) is developing a sensor-controlled system for
flexible assembly. The project partners include major vendors
of control systems and complete manufacturing systems who
are well placed to exploit the technology developed in the
project. A grey-scale se nsor, a modular force-torque sensor
system, an ultraso nic rangefinding system, and direct and
stereoscopic 3D sensors, ha ve been developed by Siemens (D),
IPA (D) and Sincon (I). These have been integrated with
robots and tested in a car wheel assembly station and on elec-
tromechanical subassembly stations by Comau (I) and Olivetti
(I).
Project 179 (Integrated Electronic Subsystems for Plant
Automation) has developed three LSI / VLSI s ubs ystems for the
control of machine tools, manipulators, robots and assembly
systems. These are a current controller for DC drives (which
is now available as a commercial product), an AC servo inter-
face, and a matrix co-processor. The project also developed a
general methodology for control system VLSI design which is
supported by manuals, seminars, etc. The partners in this
project were AEG and GEe.
The development of key technologies for flexible manufactur-
ing and assembly systems was addressed by project 278
(Integrated Sensor-based Robot System). It was led by an
SME, MARI (UK), and had industrial involvement from Bosch
(D) and Joyce Loebl , a subsidiary of Vickers (UK). The pro-
ject developed new methods for the handling of sensory data
by existing robot controllers. This led to the development of
multi-sensor systems for robots that combine visio n and tactile
sensing.
Work on the vision system component has led to a high quality
marketable product which is highly competitive in terms of
both price and performance with non-Community-sourced
products. The main application areas are robot vision , inspec-
tio n and metallurgy. Joyce Loebl is marketing this system in
Europe and the US. In view of the exploitation potential of
the tactile se nsor work MARI has set up a dedicated manu-
facturing plant. The other partners in the project were IPA
(D), the New University of Lisbon (P), the National Techni ca l
University of Athens (GR), and the Uni\'ersity of Newcastle
(UK).
Project 1561 (High Performance Flexible Manufacturing Sys-
tem Robot with Dynamic Compensation - SACODY) is devel-
oping the necessary know-how to control a high performance
robot for use in Flexible Automated Assembly System (FA AS)
environments. Developments will include active control of
articulated non-rigid structures and innovati ve sensors for
improved positioning accuracy with traCking and vibration
control. The partners in the project are Bertin (F), AEG (D),
Leuven Measurement (B) and Trinity College Dublin (lRL) .
ESPRIT 11
In the second phase of ESPRIT the emphasis in Robotics and
Shop Floor Systems will be on total system design , on the pro-
\'ision of a wide range of sensory systems, on impro ved con-
trols , and on the use of artificial intelligence to assist the han-
dling of uncertainties. Major topics included in the work pro-
gramme are:
• Advanced Manipulator
• Vision System for Industrial Automation
 ESPRIT Initiatiyes in Robotics 19

• Mobile Robot

• Advanced Sensor Systems for Process Control

A wide range of application areas are foreseen for the robotics

developments, ihcluding: factory and process plant, nuclear
power plants, construction sites, mines and quarries, tunnelling
and underwater operations, agriculture and forestry, and space.

A key emphasis of the work on robotics in ESPRIT 11 will be

the integration of robots and their supporting subsystems with
the wider manufacturing enterprise. The importance of inte-
gration and the feasibility of implementing standard factory
communications architectures has already been demonstrated
by the CNMA project described above. It is imperative that
all robotics developments recognise the importance of integra-
tion, otherwise much excellent work will result in mere pin-
points of technology with severely limited opportunities for
industrial exploitation.

elM EUROPE

To complement the development programme, ESPRIT CIM has

initiated an infrastructure activity, 'CIM Europe', which con-
solidates and enhances the effects of CIM projects by fostering
interaction between ESPRIT projects and other workers in the
field. CIM Europe embraces seven Special Interest Groups
(SIGs):

SIG Subject

I Cells, Architectures and Communications

2 Advanced Information Processing in CIM
3 Human Factors in CIM
4 CAD Interfaces
5 Control and Management for Production Systems
6 Production Systems Design and Engineering
Advanced Robotics and Intelligent Sensors

CIM Europe, which was launched in September 1985, is based

on conferences and workshops. Its first public event was a
technical workshop as part of SITEF Toulouse in October of
the same year. Subsequent annual conferences have been held
in Bremen, Knutsford (UK) and Madrid. The fifth CIM
Europe annual conference is being held in May 1989 in
Athens.

Anyone wishing to join in these activities should contact the

CIM Europe secretariat at: Commission of the European Com-
munities, Rue de Luxembourg 14 3/ I 0, B-I050 Brussels (tel:
2360797).

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