Virtual Commissioning of Robotic Operations with Flexible Thin Sheet Metal Parts

Vibrations of thin sheet-metal parts during robotic manipulation on a production line create a number of serious challenges for production process planning. Modeling the behavior of an elastic plate or shell as a function of the robot manipulator trajectory is typically performed using the finite element method (FEM) and requires significant computational effort. The time factor remains a key limitation for integrating operations involving flexible parts into the virtual commissioning process. In this work, a methodology is proposed that enables accurate real-time reproduction of the behavior of an elastic part during linear robotic manipulation. The approach is based on modeling the response of an elastic part to a prescribed base excitation using the FEM and on the development of a reduced model compliant with the FMI/FMU standard. This reduced model computes, in real time, the convolution of the precomputed base response with the acceleration profile corresponding to the robot TCP trajectory. This makes it possible to determine the total cycle duration, which consists of the part transfer time and the time required for vibration decay at the end of the trajectory down to an acceptable threshold, as well as to perform collision checking while accounting for the deformation of the flexible part. As a result, operations involving elastic parts can be integrated into the virtual commissioning process.