Update

First robot interface built for KUKA robots

13/05/2020

With the integration into a KUKA robot at Fraunhofer IGCV, nebumind’s software can now be connected to KUKA robots (KRC2 as well as KRC 4) easily and collect and visualize data as „digital product twins“ during manufacturing.

With the KUKA options RSI and FSD, our software can retrieve different kinds of production data from the robot itself (e.g. speed, robot position, axial position) and various sensors (e.g. temperature, distance to part), which are connected to the robot via Ethercat, Profinet and other connectivity solutions. The software retrieves data in intervals of 4ms and 1ms respectively and builds up the „digital part twins“ immediately during the manufacturing process. This way, the operator can online analyse the quality of manufactured parts, identify rejects early and optimize the KUKA robot accordingly.

The new interface of our software to KUKA robots opens up a wide range of analyses applications: milling, drilling, path welding, surface-layer welding, coating, 3D printing – and any other discrete manufacturing application performed by KUKA robots.

The KUKA robot at Fraunhofer IGCV is used for carbon composite part manufacturing (with Automated Fiber Placement). The process is applied especially in space and aviation manufacturing, but also in the automotive and wind energy industry. Ensuring the quality of manufactured parts is of highest importance to these industries. This is true in particular for the Automated Fiber Placement process, where factors such as speed of the machine, temperature, pressure and even ambient humidity can influence considerably the manufacturing process and the quality of produced parts. With our software all these influencing factors are visualized simultaneously as „digital product twins“ and anomalies analysed accordingly – fast and intuitively.