Supported file formats are: STEP, STL, IGES,

We recommend to use stl for obstacles as they are faster to load than STP by any CAD system. We also recommend to have low or medium resolution files for obstacles to speed up loading and collision-checks.

If you want to make use of edges or CAD features during later „programming“ stages, you will have to use STEP or IGES for work-pieces, since STL does not contain CAD-features but pure mesh information.

The next video shows an example how to load a new object into the OLP SW – via loading and renaming a CAD file. The object can later be used to model the robot-cell or scene (1.7) built of different objects, robots, etc..

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After loading a CAD-file, you can manipulate it.

The next video shows how you can rotate a loaded part, or change its origin. Also scaling is shown, a feature not only for dealing with mm, m, inches, but also a simple way to create a wall or obstacle, starting with a CAD of a box, or cylinder, or plane.

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Examples are e.g. candidates for Tool-Center-Points (TCPs). Flange points allow you to attach a tool to the robot’s flange automatically. Simulation-points define where a process-simulastion starts from a.s.o.

Reference points also define possible locations where to pick or place a part (pick points and place points). Reference points are also used to align the virtual world with the real one. Measure the position of 3 points of the workpiece with the robot in the real cell. You get 3 points in robot coordiantes. Than mark the same 3 points on the CAD of the workpiece. Later „match“ the points in the CAD with the measured ones. As a result you will get the pose of the work-piece in the cell automatically – as will be described in the scene editor.

Reminder: If you want to set a reference point graphically by clicking on a CAD-object, or if you want to modify it by selecting one of it´s coordinate-axes, don´t forget to press „CTRL“. As described in the GUI: Without CTRL all mouse actions change the view or move or rotate the object, cell, etc.

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1.3.2 Defining transformations, TCPs, flange points, etc.

1.3.3 Process Simulation

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This document explains how to make the virtual world identical to the real world. It describes how to match the part´s pose in the real and in the virtual world. That is to align the the part-robot transformation in the virtual cell as it is in the real cell. The procedure can be done for all objects inb the cell, but commonly only the relation of the robot to the part to be processed is modelled that preciseley. All other objects poses originates from CAD or Layout or is measured and larger safety distances are added.

Step 1: Measure the position of the calibration points in the real cell with the robot:

Select three points on your real workpiece which can be easily reached by the robot and which are not co-linear. The best would be if these points are sharp corners and therefore can be accurately approached by a probe tip tool. Equip your robot with a probe tip tool and take care that the tool center point is correctly defined. Move the robot with the tip of your tool to these three previously selected points. Write down the Cartesian position (which is calculated by the robot controller) for each of these three points. Now you have the X, Y and Z coordinates for these three points in the base coordinate system of the robot.

Step 2: Mark the points at the workiece inside AUTOMAPPPS:

Open the „CAD“ editor and select the model of your workpiece.

At the sidebar at the right side of the application open the „Reference Points“ tab. Press the „Add a reference point“ button for each of three calibration points. Assign a meaningful name to the added reference points like CalibrationPoint1, CalibrationPoint2 and CalibrationPoint3.

Change the transformation of the reference points in a way, that they match the positions of the workpiece you „touched“ with the robot in the real world before. This may be done by editing the position values of the translation text control elements of the Transformation widget or by using the object manipulator which is show in the 3D window when a reference is selected. And easier method is to set the „Control Mode“ parameter to „Snap to Vertex“ or „Snap to Mesh“. This allows you to specify the position of a reference point by clicking with the left mouse button and the CTRL key near the desired position of the part (the same as the robot touched) and the next CAD edge or vertex is selected.

Step 3: Include the poses measured by the robot into the scene in AUTOMAPPPS

Add an arbitrary CAD object to the CAD models editor (e.g. a boy) which will be afterwards temporarily added to the scene. Again add three reference points to this CAD model and use a meaningful name for this reference points. As transformation of the reference points you insert the measured values you got from the robot controller. These are the transformations of the identical points of the parts (which have been marked in the CAD file) but measured in real world by the robot.

Step 4: Alignment of real-world and scene

Select the corresponding scene. Temporarily add the newly generated obstacle (to which the measured points are added) to the scene. Change the position of this obstacle to the same position as the base coordinate system of the robot.

In the scene-tree select the entity of the workpiece with the right mouse button and select “Edit” -> “Align to”.

In the opened dialog select the „Align reference points to other’s“. In the „Align“ choice widget element the workpiece should already be selected. For the „To“ choice widget element select the newly added obstacle. Afterward press the Next button.

For the „Selected entity“ and the „Reference entity“ select the previously added reference points. Take care that the order of the selected reference points match. If all the reference points are given the Finish button is activated and have to be pressed.

If everything works fine the scene entity of your workpiece is correctly placed.

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Preconditions: obstacles, robots, conveyors/axes, workpieces and tools have been created/imported

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Step 1: create a new scene, i.e. commonly a workcell. Alternatives would be to copy one already existing in the same project/database or to import from another project / database. Assign a name to the scene.

Step 2: Define one initial safety distance between entities in the scene, such as tools, robots, workpieces, obstacles against each others. Safety distances for specific entities –like tool vs. work-piece, can be changed individually later. Note: collision pairs, that can not collide in the scene, such as joints or bases of the robot against (remote) obstacles, or static obstacles against other ones, are set to [void] automatically.

Step 3: Add elements to scene. Such as robots, obstacles etc. In the case of the image below, 2 obstacles have been added.

Step 4: Then add robot to the robot cart.

If you select the cart and then add the robot, it is assigned to the cart, and if the cart has a mounting point, the robot might be positioned correct right away. Potentially the robot (its base) must be re-posistioned. The base of the robot is not collison tested against the cart, since it is „connected“ in the tree-representation.

If you still have selected the scene, the robot is added in the tree-representation to the scene, not to the cart.

Step 5: Add the tool to the robot in tha same way —from the list of tools in the project. Note: the tool will by default be connected with its Flange-pose (if define) to the robots-flange. You can modify this transformation afterwards. For part-in-hand applications, the part is attached to the robot (with a gripper inbetween) and the tool is attached to an obstacle, table, etc.

Step 5b: The orientation of the tool can be changed by edit -> set transformation. The defined transformation will be visualized after “apply” (alternatively after OK).

Step 6: Select the work-piece. Note the fist entity selected and added to the scene is initially attached to the scene- graph at the root. Assignments inside the hierarchy can be changed later in the scene graph by drag-and-drop.

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