Multiple Robots

jhaglund

Is there any way to run a simulation with multiple robots in the same work cell, and have all of them capable of moving at the same time?  Examples are large parts with multiple robots to increase the throughput and a robot holding a part while a second one performs an operation such as arc welding.

Melk

I'm affraid you'll have to wait at least another year for that. Last thing i've heard is that this feature is either on the "to do list", or is being worked on a we speak. An employee of ABB in France (I believe they've got a R&D department down there) once told me that this feature would probably be released by then.

Until then your options are limited to the use of something like RobCAD. And this software package "only" costs 7 or 8 times as much as RobotStudio (Silicon Image UNIX computer system & ABB S4 software module not included for this price). Besides that, with this software package you'll miss out on the specific functions of the S4 controller.

Basicaly you have at least two options:

Be very very nice to your boss and make him believe that you are a very honorable employee and deserve this software.

Moving the robots one by one. Starting & shutting down the controller and start the controller for the next robot you want to move. But by doing this, things like calculating cycle times can be a real pain in the ***

Melk38031,1204282407

John Wiberg

->jhaglund

In RobotStudio right now there is no way to have more than one VC running at the same time. This is due to the fact that the S4:VC has hard coded memory adresses and communication.

But what you can do is to have one robot simulated and the other(s) emulated through VBA code. One solution that I have seen is to use the Simulation:Monitor output to 'record' the joint motions of a robot and then have it played back during simulation. This will let you see the behaviour and test collision detection of a multi-robot system while only having one VC.
Just have to point out though, that emulation (like they do in RobCad) is not 100% accurate and there will be small discrepancies with the real robot motion.

 Which of course, is why RobotStudio instead have Virtual Robot Technology which simulates the robot.

I know that we have worked on a powerpack with this functionality but that it is a looooooong way from even being close to a release.

->Melk

Haven't heard anything of any french r&d for multi robot systems, was it for RobotStudio or was it a seperate product?

Melk

Well to be precise: Some time ago (when RS2.1 was the most recent version) we had two visits of a french employee of ABB (an experienced RobotStudio user). We let him come to help in getting along with the program and explain things i did not understand. He also made notes of things i experianced during the use of RobotStudio, and about functions that weren't available in RobotStudio but which i realy would like to have. He said he would look into it and bring some of the ideas under the attention of the developers of RobotStudio. During his visits i asked him about simultanious simulation of multiple robots and he told me this would be possible in the future. He estimated it would be available somewhere around the end of 2004 (RS4.0?). And since he also mentioned other functions/improvements that would be available in RS3.0 (and those functions/improvements WERE available in RS3.0) i have good reason to believe that he was telling the truth about the "multiple robot"-thing too. If i've understood him correct, multiple robots will be included in RobotStudio itself, so not an add-on.

I am willing to mention his name, but only if you can assure me that he will not get in trouble for having told me this. Because he is a very friendly man who helped me alot, and i do not wish to cause him trouble.

John Wiberg

->Melk

No need to give me his name. I'm in the training department (or rather I am the training department) so I don't get all the news. There is plenty of things going on that I never hear about until they are released. I think it's a "need to know" thingy.

So I was just curious.