RoboLogix is a robotics simulator which uses a

physics engine A physics engine is computer software that provides an approximate simulation of certain physical systems, typically classical dynamics, including rigid body dynamics (including collision detection), soft body dynamics, and fluid dynamics. I ...

to emulate robotics applications. The advantages of using robotics simulation tools such as RoboLogix are that they save time in the design of robotics applications and they can also increase the level of safety associated with robotic equipment since various "what if" scenarios can be tried and tested before the system is activated. RoboLogix provides a platform to teach, test, run, and debug programs that have been written using a five-axis

industrial robot An industrial robot is a robot system used for manufacturing. Industrial robots are automated, programmable and capable of movement on three or more axes. Typical applications of robots include robot welding, welding, painting, assembly, Circu ...

in a range of applications and functions. These applications include pick-and-place, palletizing,

welding Welding is a fabrication (metal), fabrication process that joins materials, usually metals or thermoplastics, primarily by using high temperature to melting, melt the parts together and allow them to cool, causing Fusion welding, fusion. Co ...

, and painting. RoboLogix was developed by Colin Simpson and John (Bud) Skinner. It is primarily intended as an educational resource, and is used by high schools,

colleges A college (Latin: ''collegium'') may be a tertiary education, tertiary educational institution (sometimes awarding academic degree, degrees), part of a collegiate university, an institution offering vocational education, a further educatio ...

, and universities to provide laboratory simulation of industrial robots. Some institutions, such as George Brown College use RoboLogix as part of an online robotics distance education program. The simulation software allows for verification of the robot's reaching ability, travel ranges and collisions. This type of simulation software provides an increased level of reliability in the planning process and program development as well as reducing the overall completion/commissioning time. The ability to preview the behavior of a robotic system in a

virtual world A virtual world (also called a virtual space or spaces) is a Computer simulation, computer-simulated environment which may be populated by many simultaneous users who can create a personal Avatar (computing), avatar and independently explore th ...

allows for a variety of mechanisms, devices, configurations and controllers to be tried and tested before being applied to a "real world" system. RoboLogix has the capacity of real-time simulation of the motion of an industrial robot using both geometric modeling and

kinematics In physics, kinematics studies the geometrical aspects of motion of physical objects independent of forces that set them in motion. Constrained motion such as linked machine parts are also described as kinematics. Kinematics is concerned with s ...

modeling. RoboLogix enables programmers to write their own robot programs and use

sensors A sensor is often defined as a device that receives and responds to a signal or stimulus. The stimulus is the quantity, property, or condition that is sensed and converted into electrical signal. In the broadest definition, a sensor is a devi ...

such as video cameras, which are used for obtaining the desired position of the robot end effector. In addition, a teach pendant control panel is included with the simulator that allows the user to command the robot to pick up a tracked object and return it to a home location through jogged commands or pre-programmed positions.

Control panel

The RoboLogix control panel consists of both robot control functions as well as environment control functions such as conveyor system controls, on-off hard-wired control, etc. The control panel allows the user to command the robot to pick up a tracked object and return it to a home location through jogged commands or pre-programmed positions. With robotic systems in general, angular position movements are commonly used for large (course) motion and linear position movements are often used for smaller (fine) increments. There are several command instructions on the control panel such as Reset, Home, Setup and Zero which are used to automatically set the robot to a specific position for

calibration In measurement technology and metrology, calibration is the comparison of measurement values delivered by a device under test with those of a calibration standard of known accuracy. Such a standard could be another measurement device of known ...

or realignment.

Vision system

RoboLogix provides 12 viewpoints, or camera angles for a given robot work envelope. These viewpoints are accessed by the twelve CAM keys and allow for the viewing from a variety of angles and perspectives. By using these camera viewpoints, the user can move around in a 3D animated environment in much the same way they would in the real-world. One of the camera views is from the robot's end effector, which allows for the real-time visualization and positioning of the end effector (gripper) as it approaches the workpiece.

Programming language

Like most robot programming languages, RoboLogix programs consist of

data object In software development, an object is an entity that has state, behavior, and identity. An object can model some part of reality or can be an invention of the design process whose collaborations with other such objects serve as the mechanisms t ...

s and

program flow In computer science, control flow (or flow of control) is the order in which individual Statement (computer science), statements, Instruction (computer science), instructions or function calls of an imperative programming, imperative computer pro ...

. The data objects reside in registers and the program flow represents the list of instructions, or

instruction set In computer science, an instruction set architecture (ISA) is an abstract model that generally defines how software controls the CPU in a computer or a family of computers. A device or program that executes instructions described by that ISA, s ...

, that is used to program the robot. RoboLogix program language is a type of

scripting language In computing, a script is a relatively short and simple set of instructions that typically automation, automate an otherwise manual process. The act of writing a script is called scripting. A scripting language or script language is a programming ...

that is used to control the

software application Application software is any computer program that is intended for end-user use not computer operator, operating, system administration, administering or computer programming, programming the computer. An application (app, application program, sof ...

. Programming languages are generally designed for building

data structures In computer science, a data structure is a data organization and storage format that is usually chosen for efficient access to data. More precisely, a data structure is a collection of data values, the relationships among them, and the functi ...

and

algorithms In mathematics and computer science, an algorithm () is a finite sequence of mathematically rigorous instructions, typically used to solve a class of specific problems or to perform a computation. Algorithms are used as specifications for per ...

from scratch, while scripting languages are intended more for connecting, or gluing, components and instructions together. Consequently, the RoboLogix instruction set is a streamlined list of program commands that are used to simplify the programming process and provide rapid application development.

Instruction set

The RoboLogix instruction set contains 16 commands, which are usually written as a program on a line-by-line basis. These commands are used to instruct the robot to perform tasks such as moving to a specific location, picking up an object, executing a

subroutine In computer programming, a function (also procedure, method, subroutine, routine, or subprogram) is a callable unit of software logic that has a well-defined interface and behavior and can be invoked multiple times. Callable units provide a ...

, waiting, etc. One of the more popular commands in the instruction set is the IF instruction, which compares numerical values located in two registers. If a register has a value that is greater than (>), less than (<), greater than/equal to (>=), less than/equal to (<=), equal to (=), or not equal to (<>) another register, it will execute the next line in the program if the condition is true. The IF command is often used with the JMP LBL instruction to control program execution. All instruction set information is stored in registers, which are data locations capable of holding variable numeric values. There are two main types of registers used by RoboLogix: position registers and variable registers. Position registers contain both the linear and angular data point coordinates and include axis (joint) information for A1, A2, A3, etc. and for X, Y, Z linear, or

Cartesian coordinates In geometry, a Cartesian coordinate system (, ) in a plane is a coordinate system that specifies each point uniquely by a pair of real numbers called ''coordinates'', which are the signed distances to the point from two fixed perpendicular o ...

. There are also 32 variable registers which can be used for holding instruction set data such as position comparisons and time-delay information. In addition to position registers and variable registers, some robot software programs also have palletizing registers, which are used to manage the position of the stack point in palletizing applications.

Palletizing

Palletizing is one of the more popular applications for robots, and is accomplished by combining a series of commands into a palletizing routine. A RoboLogix palletizing routine consists of five program instructions, or lines. The first instruction is the Palletize instruction, which is followed by a linear motion instruction to move to the stack point. The stack point is the top-center of the workpiece, and a group of stack points forms a stacking pattern, as shown in the adjacent image. The first stack point in a stacking pattern is located at (1,1,1) (row, column, layer) and is incremented each time the palletizing routine is executed.

References

External links

* {{Official website, http://www.RoboLogix.com Robotics simulation software Simulation programming languages Industrial robotics