Cyber Physical Systems: A Brief Survey and an Application of a MIR (Mobile Industrial Robot) for Inspection

This work refers to the realization of a Cyber Physical System (CPS), i.e. modeling, analysis, and integration of a MIR (Mobile Industrial Robot) platform with an industrial robot, in order to test its operating conditions. MIRs, although usually employed in industrial environment, can be used in sectors such as inspection, assistance, defense, production, remote exploration as well as search and rescue. In addition of being programmable, thanks to the provision of sensors and navigation systems, they can adapt in real time to various environmental contexts and purposes of use. The objective of the paper is to create a CPS of a MIR that can basically perform two fundamental actions. The first one is to carry out movements in predominantly external environments and therefore with various types of terrain. The second fundamental action is the pick and place operations, i.e. the robot must be able to carry out the manipulation of objects.