Getting the most out of your workcell with simulation

Robot­ic sim­u­la­tion and off-line pro­gram­ming save time and mon­ey when design­ing a work­cell. The inte­gra­tor or end-user should take the oppor­tu­ni­ty to ana­lyze how a work­cell will behave before he invests his valu­able time and mon­ey on equip­ment. Sim­u­la­tion and off-line pro­gram­ming per­mit the inte­gra­tor to ana­lyze mul­ti­ple sce­nar­ios of a work­cell before mis­takes in design­ing the cell can be made. 

Sim­u­la­tion can be used to fig­ure out which robot mod­el is best for the process, to ver­i­fy the robot’s reach and access, and to con­fig­ure the cell around the robot. Sim­u­la­tion actu­al­ly stream­lines and accel­er­ates the process, help­ing to deter­mine if a design con­cept will work for the flow of the product. 

Sim­u­la­tion tools also help inte­gra­tors cre­ate opti­mal pro­gram paths for the robot. Most robot man­u­fac­tur­ers like Fanuc, KUKA, ABB, and Motoman have their own sim­u­la­tion pack­ages that increase the capa­bil­i­ties of CAD-to-path programming.

Motoman uses sim­u­la­tion for reach stud­ies and cycle time analy­sis. Reach stud­ies attempt to deter­mine the posi­tion of graph­i­cal tools to decide where to place the part in respect to the robot. Sim­u­la­tion shows how many parts per hour the work­cell can cre­ate in cycle time analy­sis. The process can be fine-tuned by repo­si­tion­ing the robot, or using two robots to get the prop­er cycle time. The com­pa­ny wants to ensure that the robot­ic sys­tem will per­form the func­tions that the end-user needs. 

Sim­u­la­tion tru­ly reflects real­i­ty on the shop floor. A detailed 3D lay­out of a work­cell in the pro­gram will trans­late very well to what the actu­al lay­out will be. As cal­i­bra­tion tools con­tin­ue to grow, the dif­fer­ences between the vir­tu­al and real worlds will narrow.

We can help you choose and install the right robot and sim­u­la­tion soft­ware. Con­tact us today online or at 877−762−6881.