This is the most advanced mode that allows the user to design
paths for the robot to follow. By default,
the Robot contains 2 paths (called Load and Unload) to demonstrate some
of the parameter options.
What is a Path?
A Path is a set of movements as defined by a series of
robot positions. The Robot stores robot positions
in a tabular format where each row is a record of the 6 joint angles
that make-up the
given position. The default Load
path for example contains 2 positions. When the
Robot performs this path, it will move from its current position to
Row1 position, followed by Row2 position. You can preview the motion of
the robot for this path by pressing the button.
You can also directly view an individual row's position by clicking on
the row in the table and pressing the button to
apply that row to the Robot's joints.
What controls the timing of
a Path movement?
There are various options for controlling the time a path
movement takes in the simulation. Note that the Gripper
Action Times are added to the end of a movement.
If Path Cycle Time
> 0 -
You can specify the length of time the Robot takes to complete the
series of path movements. In this case, the
MoveTime column in the Position Table affects the distribution of the
Path Cycle Time delay time as follows:
Without Weighting
- Leave the MoveTime column in the Position Table all zeros or equal
values and the Path Cycle Time will be divided
evenly amongst the number of positions in the path.
With Weighting
- Adjust the values in the MoveTime column to represent the ratio of
the Path Cycle Time you wish to assign to each
position row.
Example
- A path contains 3 position rows with 1, 1, 2 respectively in the
MoveTime column and the Path Cycle Time
was 5.2s. The AR would take 1/(1+1+2) * 5.2s to move to the first
position, an equal time to move from the first
position to the second position, and 2/(1+1+2) * 5.2s to move from the
second position to the third position.
If Path Cycle Time
= 0 and MoveTime column fields > 0 -
When the Path Cycle Time field returns a 0, the Robot will use the sum
of the values in the MoveTime column as
the cycle time for the path. In this way you have precise control of
the move time from each position to the next.
This method can also be used to insert a stop delay in the movement;
set 2 rows in sequence to the same position
and use the MoveTime as the delay time.
Negative Move Time
affects animation only (Relative Speeds) -
For a given movement within a path, if the MoveTime value is a negative
value the Robot will still treat it as if
it were positive, however the joint speeds will be adjusted such that
they are proportional to the Relative Speeds
entered in the Robot Geometry tab. Note that this is purely a change in
the animation and does not affect the
movement cycle time. Usually, entering the actual max speed of each
joint (from manufacturer) into the Relative
Speeds will give best results.
How do I create my own Paths?
Position and size the model view such that you can see the
Robot Properties GUI and the robot in your model without overlap of
windows.
Click Add Path.
This will create a duplicate of the currently selected path.
In the path's name field type a descriptive name for the
path. The name has no functional effect on the behavior of the Robot.
Clear the Position Table by pressing until there
is only one row remaining.
Turn ON the Path Planner by clicking the Planner Item checkbox. A box named
PlanningItem will appear in the 3D view in the Robot’s gripper. You can
move and rotate the PlanningItem with your mouse and the robot will
move accordingly. You should have the Resize
and Rotate Objects feature checked (found under Flexsim’s
Edit menu). Also, you might consider disabling Snap To Grid before
proceeding further.
Begin by recording the end position of your path as it is
the most important position. In this case, I wish to record a second
path for the Robot to follow before loading the FlowItem from the
conveyor. Thus, the end position would have the robot gripped onto the
FlowItem as it sits on the end of the conveyor.
Press the model Step
button (in the simulation run panel) to advance the model run forward
by event until a FlowItem appears at the end of the conveyor ready for
pickup. You may need to recheck the Planner Item
checkbox if you reset the model since the robot hides the item when the
model is reset.
In the Robot properties window, click the Sync to Flow
Item button
next to the Planner Item check box. The cursor will change to a
"sampling" cursor. Now click on the flow item in the model
view.
Choose an option from the Clamp
Orientation drop-down to determine the orientation from
which the clamp will grab the flow item.
Make sure to choose the proper
Close Width drop-down option for determining closed grip
width associated with this path. (The open gripper width parameter
is found in the Geometry tab)
Now
that the Robot is gripping the item as desired, save the Robot's joint
positions to the row in the table. Click on the first row in the table,
and press the button
to save the Robot's current joint positions to that row.
The recorded position is actually the end
position the Robot must have at the end of a LOAD task (call it the
pickup position). Technically this is all you need, however often you
will
want to insert position rows above this row that control how the Robot
gets to the pickup position. For example you may want to have the Robot
first go to a position above the flow item, then drop down to clamp it.
To do this, add a new row by clicking on the first row and clicking the
button.
This will add a row before the selected row. Then click on the
PlanningItem and use the scroll wheel on your mouse to change the Z
location of the PlanningItem while staying directly above the pickup
position. Then click on the newly created row in the table and press
the
button to update that row with the new position.
If you were to reset and run the model, the Automatic
Path Selection would likely not choose your new path to load the
FlowItem because the original Load path still exists and is positioned
higher in the Path Selector list. Choose the original Load path and
delete it.
Reset and Run the model.
How are the Gripper Action Times applied?
The Gripper Action Times are added to the Path movement time
since a close or open clamp action is performed at the end
of a LOAD or UNLOAD task respectively (after the path movement is
complete).
If you enter a positive value into the Close Time field,
the Robot will close its clamp at the end of the Path movement and the
value entered will be the delay time associated with the action. Note
that if the Robot is responding to a task that does not involve a
FlowItem, the closed clamp width will be 0.
If you enter a positive value into the Open Time field, the
Robot will open its clamp at the end of the Path movement and the value
entered will be the delay time associated with the action. The clamp
will open to the Open Gripper Width specified in the Geometry tab.
If both the Close Time and
Open Time fields are 0, the clamp will not move.
If you enter a negative value into either the Close Time or the
Open Time fields, the Robot will perform the action in 0 time. (as of
FlexSim v5)
How does the Robot choose which Path to use?
By default, the robot searches for the path with an end
position (last position row) which results in the smallest distance
between the Robot’s end effector and x,y,z location as requested by the
task it is responding to.
Controlling the Path that the robot uses for a given task
There are two ways to override the Robot’s automatic path
selection. It is helpful to understand that the default task sequence
that is generated when the Use Transport is checked on a Fixed Resource
contains 2 tasks that the Robot responds to (FRLOAD and
FRUNLOAD tasks).
Specify directly on a custom Task Sequence
- Knowledge of writing your own custom task sequences is assumed in
this section. Specifying a negative end speed variable when writing the
task sequence will tell the Robot to use the path number that matches
this end speed (Path Number = end speed). The task types that the Robot
responds to are listed below with the location of the end speed
variable. See the Task Type Quick Reference found in the User Manual
under Task Sequences.
TASKTYPE_
Location of end speed variable
LOAD and FRLOAD
UNLOAD and FRUNLOAD
var2
TRAVELRELATIVE
TRAVELTOLOC
(for movements that don’t involve FlowItems)
var4
(As of FlexSim v5) When using a TRAVELRELATIVE task type
with a negative endspeed to choose the path you can now use var1 (the x
parameter) to tell the Robot which position row to stop at if you don’t
want it to perform the entire path.
Next Path Number (great for known path sequences such as palletizing) -
Palletizing is simply a sequence of
LoadPath1-UnloadPath1-LoadPath2-UnloadPath2… once the Robot unloads the
last FlowItem on the Pallet, the sequence repeats. Every Path has a
“Next Path Number” field in which you can specify the path number you
want to be used following the currently selected path. When the Robot
executes a path that has a non-zero Next Path Number specified, it will
store this path number into memory until the next time in the model run
it performs a task that requires automatic path selection (not
specified on the task itself). Instead of searching for a suitable
path, the Robot will choose the path number stored in memory.
If during the model run you wish to clear the Robot’s Next
Path Number memory, simply set its “nextpathselected” variable to zero
and the Robot will return to conducting automatic path selection for a
best-fit path (if not specified on the task).
A combination of a custom task sequence and Next Path
Number can save a lot of time!
Take the example of a palletizing operation with 4
FlowItems per pallet.
Make 1 load path and 4 unique unload paths to show the
positioning of FlowItem on the pallet. The load path will be Path
Number 1, and the unload paths will occupy Path Numbers 2 through 5.
Don’t forget about the trick using the model “Step” and the “Match
Highlighted Item” buttons we learned in “How do I create my own
Paths?”.
The path sequence we want is
LoadPath1-UnloadPath1-LoadPath1-UnloadPath2- LoadPath1-UnloadPath3-
LoadPath1-UnloadPath4 or Path Numbers 1-2-1-3-1-4-1-5. Since the
LoadPath1 is always used for the FRLOAD task, we can specify var2 as -1
on this task.
In the Path Planner, go to the load path (Path Number 1
in this example) and specify a Next Path Number = 2, as this is the
first unload path of the cycle.
Go to the first unload path (Path Number 2 in this
example) and specify
a Next Path Number = 3 (-3 will work as well). Path Number 3 should
have a Next Path Number = 4, and Path Number 4 should have a Next Path
Number = 5. Path Number 5 should have a Next Path Number = 2 to
complete the cycle.