Offline Synchronous Motion Programming of Multiple Robots

Multi-robot coordinated motion opens up a great amount of possibilities for the optimization that can be achieved using industrial robots, like using a six-axis robot as a positioner and six-axis robots to perform the process, sharing an external axis in-between multiple robots, sharing a single load or tool via an offset TCP, or simply to create safe and perfectly timed handshakes in-between multiple robots. The increased complexity of the motion given by the number of axes and timings makes offline programming even more relevant for these types of processes. These tasks require the flexibility to combine different forms of coordination often within the same program, so the OLP software should be flexible enough to simulate the complex handshakes and time synchronizations to ensure an accurate simulation. In Booth B-37082, CENIT North America Inc. (Auburn Hills, MI) will present Synchronous robot team support, one of the newest modules of their FASTSUITE Edition 2, that enables the efficient and safe programming and simulation of cooperated robot teams, especially of robot cells where multiple robots are working simultaneously on workpieces that are dynamically moved by workpiece positioners.

With this new function it is no longer necessary to manually synchronize and optimize the robot operations. It also enables a realistic work cell setup with only one positioner definition for multiple robots, making previous workarounds obsolete. Some of the features offered by these new FASTSUITE functionalities include:

• Support of several work cell types and robot cell configurations.
• Up to 16 robots can be included and synchronized.
• Independent and individual programming of each robot.
• Special synchronization event to define handshakes where the robots will wait until a specific move is achieved by all units.
• Special synchronization event to define time start and end of time synchronization zones where the robots will perform identical motion times.
• Synchronization command to automatically define the external axes positions onto the programmed tool paths of the robots.
• Several cooperation modes are supported.

CENIT North America Inc., Digital Factory Solutions, 691 North Squirrel Road, Suite 275, Auburn Hills, MI 48326, 248-309-3240, www.fastsuite.com.