In a paper just published online for earlycite, an extensive effort to reasearch and build an architecture designed to control robot manipulators used with additive manufacturing applications is reported. The study, conducted at the Department of Mechanical Engineering of the University of Coimbra by a team led by J. Norberto Pires, which also includes the master’s degree student Filipe Ribeiro (his master’s dissertation was evaluated with 19 values in 20) and the researcher Amin S. Azar of the Norwegian institute SINTEF, was published by the scientific journal “Industrial Robot” and can be found in the link below:
Additive
manufacturing (AM) technologies have recently turned into a mainstream
production method in many industries. The adoption of new manufacturing
scenarios led to the necessity of cross-disciplinary developments by combining
several fields such as materials, robotics and computer programming. This paper
aims to describe an innovative solution for implementing robotic simulation for
AM experiments using a robot cell, which is controlled through a system control
application (SCA).
Design/methodology/approach
For
this purpose, the emulation of the AM tasks was executed by creating a robot
working station in RoboDK software, which is responsible for the automatic
administration of additive tasks. This is done by interpreting gcode from the
Slic3r software environment. Posteriorly, all the SCA and relevant graphical
user interface (GUI) were developed in Python to control the AM tasks from the
RoboDK software environment. As an extra feature, Slic3r was embedded in the
SCA to enable the generation of gcode automatically, without using the original
user interface of the software. To sum up, this paper adds a new insight in the
field of AM as it demonstrates the possibility of simulating and controlling AM
tasks into a robot station.
Findings
The
purpose of this paper is to contribute to the AM field by introducing and
implementing an SCA capable of executing/simulating robotic AM tasks. It also
shows how an advanced user can integrate advanced simulation technologies with
a real AM system, creating in this way a powerful system for R&D and
operational manufacturing tasks. As demonstrated, the creation of the AM
environment was only possible by using the RoboDk software that allows the
creation of a robot working station and its main operations.
Originality/value
Although
the AM simulation was satisfactory, it was necessary to develop an SCA capable
of controlling the whole simulation through simple commands instructed by
users. As described in this work, the development of SCA was entirely
implemented in Python by using official libraries. The solution was presented
in the form of an application capable of controlling the AM operation through a
server/client socket connection. In summary, a system architecture that is
capable of controlling an AM simulation was presented. Moreover, implementation
of commands in a simple GUI was shown as a step forward in implementation of
modern AM process controls.
The authors are: J. Norberto Pires, Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Coimbra Filipe Ribeiro, former student of MIEM of the University of Coimbra (his thesis was evaluated with 19 values), currently engineer of the company RoboWorks (Aveiro). Amin S. Azar, PhD researcher at SINTEF, Norway.
In this presentation, for the 2019 edition of the University of Coimbra Summer School, we’ll make a demonstration on how to design parts using a 3D CAD package and how to prepare them to be 3D-Printed. We’ll also print a small part (example) to show the effectiveness of the process.
Finally, we’ll use several already printed parts to assemble a robotic hand and operate it from a personal computer. Aspects related with assembly, programming and operating with the hand will be covered.
Videos bellow show some aspects of the presented robotic hand.
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Nesta apresentação, preparada para a Universidade de Verão da Universidade de Coimbra – 2019, faremos uma demonstração de como projetar peças, usando uma ferramenta de CAD 3D, e de como as preparar para serem impressas em 3D. Faremos ainda, a título de exemplo, uma impressão de uma pequena peça de exemplo para mostrar a eficiência do processo.
Finalmente, usaremos várias peças já impressas para montar uma mão robótica que depois comandaremos a partir de um computador pessoal. Os aspetos relacionados com a montagem, programação e operação da mão serão cobertos nesta apresentação.
Os vídeos abaixo mostram alguns dos pormenores da mão robótica usada nesta apresentação.
Os nossos desenvolvimentos e soluções para impressão metálica 3D foram referidos no programa “Negócios e Empresas” da TSF. Pode ouvir no site da TSF aqui ou ouvir abaixo.
Sempre que publico artigos a métrica que procuro é o número de leituras. Os artigos são fontes de informação, são uma forma que temos de divulgar resultados e aquilo que fazemos. É esse o meu primeiro objetivo.
Por isso, quando vejo que os meus artigos têm altas taxas de leituras fico satisfeito comigo mesmo e com os meus colaboradores e digo, para mim, objetivo atingido – bom trabalho, pá!
O capítulo “Industrial Robotics” da 2ª edição do Robotics Handbook (Springer) tem sido muito bem sucedido em termos de visibilidade: cerca de 13k downloads do site SPRINGER.
Como coautor do capítulo – “Robótica Industrial“, Martin Hägele (IPA-Fraunhofer), Klas Nilsson (Universidade de Lund), J. Norberto Pires (Universidade de Coimbra), Rainer Bischoff (Kuka Robotics) – estou muito feliz com o interesse do capítulo, então convido todos a navegar, veja as referências e vídeos associados ao capítulo.
O próprio manual, com download de 1.27M, é # 4 entre os livros de melhor desempenho de Springer em Engenharia e # 1 entre aqueles em inglês!
The Industrial Robotics chapter of the 2nd edition of the Robotics Handbook (Springer) has been very successful in terms of visibility: around 13k downloads from the SPRINGER website.
As co-author of the chapter – “Industrial Robotics“, Martin Hägele (IPA-Fraunhofer), Klas Nilsson (Lund University), J. Norberto Pires (University of Coimbra), Rainer Bischoff (Kuka Robotics) – I’m very happy with the interest about the chapter, so I invite you all to browse it, see the references and videos associated with the chapter.
The handbook itself, with 1.27M download, is #4 among Springer best performing books in Engineering, and #1 among those in English
Este vídeo demonstra a utilização de uma aplicação remota muito simples usada para controlar a operação de um robô industrial ABB. A aplicação faz chamadas TCP/IP a um servidor instalado no robô e pode ser usado com um robô real ou com um modelo em Robot Studio. A demonstração deste vídeo é feita com um modelo em Robot Studio.
This video shows how we control an application running on an ABB robot using a TCP/IP server. The server works on any controller, including any controller used with a Robot Studio model.
in this section I’ll list projects, softwareand other subjects that catch my attention (namely students projects) like, for example, the jnpDrone project.