For instance, iteration involving traversal to previous steps is often needed to resolve issues related to the design and development of robotized tasks. This presents additional difficulties for users to model and to export their 3D models to these standard softwares for simulating a given task.
However, many of these systems do not rely on standard CAD packages like SolidWorks and CATIA and provide additional packages and modules (mostly not free of cost) for robotic task development. Currently robotic systems employ intensive use of CAD and embedded knowledge to design the robot mechanism and to simulate the manipulators' movements. The addition of CAD tools in manufacturing robotic processes has set new trends in the modern industry. Thus, industrial product design and robot manipulators programming can be integrated seamlessly. A possible combination of CAD and knowledgeware methodologies to program manipulators may lead to advances in versatility and autonomy of the modern industrial plants. The last two decades witnessed Off-Line Programming (OLP) for Computer Aided Design (CAD) learning trajectory through teach pendant. Additionally, the simulation tools offer potential benefits in terms of reduction in time consumption and ease in the whole process of development of robotized task. This has motivated engineers to develop tools that help users to carry out robotic tasks, which may require automatic path planning and determination of collision-free path. Thus, novel, advanced and more intuitive techniques to develop and program the robotized tasks are required,. Even, to date, many industrial manipulators are still designed based on the conventional teaching process. This may be a critical constraint for many small and some medium-sized manufacturing companies in setting-up robotic manipulators in their facilities. Moreover, developing and programming robotized task in the conventional manner such as using teaching pendant is a cumbersome and time consuming task in general, requiring highly expert operators. Recent advancements in industrial automation have stipulated the need to simulate and control industrial robotized tasks in a more systematic and efficient way. These requirements take place throughout the development phases of the task. The need of robotic manipulators in industrial sector has raised requirements related to the development of robotized tasks. Moreover, the approach permits addressing the problems related with the real implementation of robotized tasks. The output of the proposed strategy provides collision-free trajectory of the manipulator's motion which can be directly mapped to a real site. To demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed approach, two frequent and important tasks (spot welding and painting) using a 6-Degree Of Freedom (DOF) industrial robotic manipulator have been considered.
The platform provides most important steps such as defining the task, CAD learning of the end-effector's trajectory, checking the manipulator's reachability to perform a task, simulating the motion and finally validating the manipulator's trajectory to avoid possible collisions.
Robotic manipulator library is one such example which contains several types of serial arms with different combinations of revolute and prismatic joints. The platform includes various 3D models that are essential for developing any robotized task and offers possibility to integrate new models in simulation. The core idea is to integrate features of mechanical CAD and robotics CAD into the same platform to facilitate the development process through the designed Graphical User Interface (GUI) which permits user friendly interaction. This paper presents Industrial Robotics Simulation Design Planning and Optimization platform named IRoSim, which is based on SolidWorks Application Programming Interface (API) to offer an intuitive and convertible environment for designing and simulating robotized tasks.