Orient tangent to path

Jeff Sherman

Hello,

I have a spray application in which the spray pattern is not round. As a result the orientation of the tool as it travels along a curving path is important. Robot studio allows me to easily set all of my targets normal to the par surface, which is a huge help. I need to go one step further and set all target x axes tangent to the path at that point. I can manually adjust the orientation of each target to accomplish this but many of my paths have thousands of targets. Is there any way to automate this? Perhaps there is a tool in one of the power packs that could help withi this? Thanks for any assistance.

KgaOfflineCenter

Hi,

I think you can use Home/Path/AutoPath function with "Reference Surface".

You can use AutoPath either with edge or curve.

You can change Travel Vector under File/Options/Mechanism.



BR / Henrik

Jeff Sherman

You are absolutely right Henrik, thanks. I didn't explain my equipment clearly enough. The spray tool has two hoses connected to it that are then mounted to the side of axis 4. I need to be very careful not to allow axis 6 or 4 to turn more than +- 90 out of sink with each other to prevent hose kinking. The two axes together can not turn more than +- 120.

When I create a path using autopath it knows nothing about these limitations and creates all sorts of impossible situations. For example, if I have a path that moves from bottom to top and then steps over and returns to the bottom autopath will flip the orietation of the targets on the downwards leg by 180 deg.

I suppose what I really want to be able to do is to use "align target" to set a group of targets to the approximate desired orientation and then have some function that would align them tangent to the direction of travel by choosing the solution that results in the least amount of target rotation.

I am currently programming by bringing in a complete path from CATIA and then using autopath to create all targets at once. Perhaps I just need to break things down a bit more and do one leg at a time so I can have more control over the output.

Marcel

Hi

 

For not having those problems we don't mount anything to axis 4. We have some rod from the axis 3 coming in front close to axis 4 and 5 where we mount the hoses and some equipement.

 

Best regards

 

Marcel