There is a major trend toward offering different kinds of simulation for the evaluation and control of robotics installations and workspaces.
Simulation has the ability to help people engineering design robotics that’s most effective for manufacturing and industrial processes.
How does that work? One of the big contributions of simulation is in the ability to figure out what a robot’s work will look like when it is deployed. The invention of new kinds of modeling and simulation is instrumental to the work of integrating robotics into the work world.
Elements of Robotic Simulations
Experts point out that different types of simulations help with explaining processes, and how robots will be involved, talking about the use of simulation on:
- Concepts
- Sequences
- Paths
- Workflows
- Motions
- Cycle times
By considering all of this, companies can figure out how to make robots fit into an existing work process. Specific benchmarks and metrics will have to do with the end goals, and what is desired in terms of automation.
Robotics and the Kinematic Model
People who are talking about simulations for robotics will often use the term ‘kinematic model.’ This has a particular meaning in terms of the physics of robotics.
First of all, experts identify the kinematic model as a subfield of physics dealing with the geometry of motion – without considering the forces that create that motion. In other words, engineers already know what the forces are based on the robotic design. They want to see how the robot will work in practice.
Side note – kinematic actually has the same root as the word “cinema,” referring to the effect of watching motion in video. Some may also describe kinematics as the ‘movements of points, bodies and systems’ and talk about ‘kinematic chains,’ which are the structures of robot systems.
Kinematic Chains and Robots
To explain how robots involve kinematic chains, you could say that a robot is an assembly of rigid bodies with joints. By looking at the robot’s joints and links, the engineers can use the simulation to advance their understanding of how that robot will work. They can use it for valuable prototyping in many different types of use cases.
Robots and Virtual Environments
Experts also talk about putting robots into virtual environments, to see how they might work in production.
For example, if the robot is supposed to be a manufacturing robot on a specific assembly line, engineers will re-create that process – down to the station on the assembly conveyor, the machinery that surrounds it like PPC series controllers, and what’s required to move items precisely and strategically to get the job done. Suppose a robot is supposed to be moving an injector to fill an item on a line: through the use of sensors and computer vision, etc., the developed simulation can see, and show, how the process will work in the real world, including elements like where to position a nozzle, how the range of motion will work, and how the station will comply with time directives.
In the context of machine learning, you could also say that simulations can help develop labeled training data that are applied to the automation process. In these types of scenarios, the simulations are based on the real-world data collected, and used to forecast that actual production.
Things to Look For in Robotic Simulations
As companies develop more simulations for robotics, they’re looking to advance these frameworks to make them more effective.
One key is flexibility – how well the simulation imitates real practice, and how precisely it demonstrates what the robot can do.
There’s also something called the high-level-low-level problem, which has to do with matching programming languages. Systems that can achieve this can become more effective simulation programs.
In addition, engineers might value the concept of real-time simulation that applies more synthesized results to an actual process. That way engineers can get more of a realistic picture in real time.
Think about all of these ways that simulation affects the robotics world. It’s a time when more companies are considering what integrating robots can do for any number of work practices. It’s not uncommon for a single company to have, not one, but many robotics applications in modernizing workflows and gearing up for the rest of the twenty-first century.
