Initiatives / Smart Systems & Robotics
Light Track
Light Track projects the planned paths of mobile robots onto the lab floor, making their future movement visible to the people working around them.
- Program
- Smart Systems & Robotics
- Status
- Planning
- Project lead
- Kirsten Gaddie
- Stack
- TypeScript, Node.js, ceiling projectors
Making robot movement visible
Light Track makes it easier to see where the mobile KUKA robots plan to move throughout the Smart Manufacturing Lab. By projecting their planned paths directly onto the floor, people can see where a robot is going before it gets there, improving awareness when people and robots share the same space.
How it works
The system uses ceiling-mounted Magcubic HY450 projectors connected to Intel NUCs running fullscreen webpages. A TypeScript and Node.js backend processes the robot path data and converts it into coordinates for the relevant projectors. Because it is web-based, the NUCs only need to open the display page, while path processing and control are handled centrally.
Integration with the Digital Twin
Light Track will receive the planned paths of the mobile robots from the lab's Digital Twin. The path coordinates are then transformed to match the physical layout of the lab and displayed through the relevant projectors, so planned robot movement is visualised directly on the floor.
