Design of a Robot Application with Regard to Energy Efficiency

Abstract

Design of robotics applications based on energy efficiency is not a new idea or new requirement of industry. Furthermore, the new circumstances of the global warming of the earth's climate system oblige the robotic application designers and system integrators to improve their systems about energy efficiency. Especially robotic systems for palletizing applications, when the Robot moves the parts very quickly, should be improved for the energy efficiency. Inopportunely the implementation of this requirement during design phase often happens partially. In this regard, the designers see the lack of appropriate tools as the cause of this problem as well as missing of physical components during this early project stage. In this context, this works highlights the energy efficiency improvement during design stage using simulation methods/tools for virtual robots. Even in this early stage of the design process, these tools support energy evaluation of different robot moving patterns for different layout concepts. To demonstrate this, a robotic pick-and-place (palletising) application for compost bags is used as a case study. The results of this investigation (energy diagrams) for each concept and scenario are graphically presented and in details discussed. Further research will focus on developing tools for automatic energy check of robotic trajectories within the software user interface.