Robotic Apprentices: Leveraging Augmented Reality for Robot Training in Manufacturing Automation

In the scope of Industry 4.0, a framework is proposed to leverage the potential of articulating Augmented Reality and Robotic Manufacturing in the construction industry. The objective of such framework is to enable robots to learn how to perform tasks using direct interaction with human operators. As a first step, we established a connection between a robot and its trainer— or controller—in which the robot mirrors the operator’s actions. Augmented Reality hardware is used for capturing the trainer’s gestures and the surrounding environment. A digital tool was implemented using Grasshopper and additional plugins to control the process.