CAD-based robot path planning and simulation using OPEN CASCADE

Abstract

In manufacturing industries, human operators are required in many manufacturing processes, which is time-consuming and not cost-effective. In the present approach, a CAD-based off-line programming (OLP) platform is developed based on OPEN CASCADE (OCC) open source libraries. The developed platform works as a human-robot interface (HRI), offers friendly interaction in an intuitive way, so that in few minutes with basic information, any user can generate a robot path from a CAD model and visualize the simulation graphically. The platform provides important steps such as loading CAD models to define a task, extracting CAD information to generate a path, checking the reachability of the manipulator, and simulation to check and prevent the possible collision before generating a robot program. To evaluate the industrial usability of the proposed platform, a robot program for gluing application is generated from simulation and mapped to a real 6-Degree Of Freedom industrial manipulator.