Hello everyone,
I would like to take this opportunity to promote/share a piece of software that was developed as part of a research project at the Chair of Production Systems at the Ruhr University Bochum. This is a Matlab/Simulink programme that uses measured data from a force-torque sensor and the stiffness curvess of the robot joints to calculate and control the displacement of the tool as a result of process forces in real time. This is done on an external computer. The corresponding network traffic is handled by the programme. In addition, the software contains the functionality to adjust a process force in any alternating direction. Instructions, the stiffness curves of a KR600 and sample programmes are included in the download: https://zenodo.org/records/14414081
The following programmes and packages were used for the implementation:
KRC4 V8.3.26
RobotSensorInterface 3.3.2
Matlab 2020a (Simulink Desktop Real-Time, SimScape)
The software was originally developed for use in robot-based incremental sheet metal forming (Roboforming) (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9PAVOrt_co). The controllers are optimised for high process forces of 2000 +/- 500 N and slow movement speeds (20 mm/s). While the calculation of the process force-induced displacement is independent of this, the controllers must be re-parameterised for other processes. A scientific publication describing the approach in detail can be found here: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11740-021-01052-4.
In the validation experiments, the same positioning accuracies were measured during a forming process as in moving through the air. The status of force control described in the publication no longer corresponds to the current software and can be ignored.
The software is licenced under CC BY 4.0 and can be used freely for any application.
Questions can be sent here or to Dennis Möllensiep (moellensiep@lps.rub.de).