Program a robot using CAD model to move accurately around a part

asked 2021-05-31 05:22:31 -0500

Jt3d gravatar image

Hi all,

I am just stating a project and I wanted to get some inputs from people before going too far. Ideally I want to do the following at a really high level

  1. Import a CAD program (any of these will do obj, stl .step)
  2. Dynamically create a robot program from the CAD where the robot moves around the part and the robot tool continuously points to the surface normal of the part as the robot moves
  3. Have the robot tool offset from the physical part by 10mm at all locations
  4. A relatively simple way to create the robot path and make sure it is smooth as it moves continuously around the part. (The parts are complex in shape)

How would people recommend approaching this problem. I'm familiar with ROS but I have not worked much with MoveIt or Gazebo so not sure what options are available in these packages or do I need to look further afield.

Thanks in advance

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Comments

This sounds like what ros-industrial/noether and/or swri-robotics/heat_raster and ros-industrial-consortium/tesseract could be used for (and are in fact used for).

There are no 2-step, out-of-the-box everything-works examples for that though.

The ROS-Industrial blog has a couple of posts about systems using those packages. Almost all OSS industrial robotics applications by SwRI make use of them.

gvdhoorn gravatar image gvdhoorn  ( 2021-05-31 05:38:40 -0500 )edit

Many thanks for the prompt reply. It looks like 'noether' would be a good starting point alright.

I'll take a look at this in more detail and see if I can get some of the examples working.

Jt3d gravatar image Jt3d  ( 2021-05-31 06:05:16 -0500 )edit

If you're not 'married' to ROS you could see whether RoboDK makes this any easier.

It's not ROS, but for people just starting out it may provide an easier upgrade path from fully manual programming to fully automated automation.

gvdhoorn gravatar image gvdhoorn  ( 2021-05-31 06:19:16 -0500 )edit

OK - thanks will give that a look too - I presume this is a commercial package

Jt3d gravatar image Jt3d  ( 2021-05-31 08:37:52 -0500 )edit

Ok - got the noether examples working and it looks promising but I have a few questions. Should I ask them in noether issues or does it make more sense here?

Jt3d gravatar image Jt3d  ( 2021-06-02 10:04:38 -0500 )edit

I don't expect the Noether authors/maintainers to check ROS Answers frequently, so the issue tracker might be where you'll get more response.

They might suggest a better venue if they feel that'd be more appropriate.

gvdhoorn gravatar image gvdhoorn  ( 2021-06-02 10:07:17 -0500 )edit

Thanks - I'll ask my questions there and see what they say. Appreciate the help

Jt3d gravatar image Jt3d  ( 2021-06-02 10:16:51 -0500 )edit
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