An open-architecture integration solution for the research and development of smart robots

Many key factors driving the Fourth Industrial Revolution (Industry 4.0) are to construct industrial robots to become increasingly intelligent, multi-functional, flexible, and efficient, as well as a complementing platform for collaboration with people. The latest generation of intelligent robots, known as Cobots (collaborative robots), can now cooperate and stand side-by-side with humans in a safe way and perform many tasks that require the same skills as humans. This paper firstly overviews the new generation of Cobots used for manufacturing and other applications to see forward into the future. Secondly, we briefly mention innovation technologies that should be integrated and extended deeper into smart robots to develop their applications in smart manufacturing, science and technology, high education, and so on. As a result, it is necessary to build new prototype robot systems that possess open hardware and software architectures for the development of both their smartness and dynamic skills. The main content of this paper will propose an open-architecture system for smart robots as well as like-robot machines using a CompactDAQ platform from National Instruments (NI). In the end, some information about the realized system implemented at the Institute of Mechanics of Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology will be shown for far joint discussion.