System and method for enhancing reach of a robotic arm
AssigneePlazma Technologies Pvt. Ltd.
InventorsHughen Gerrard Thomas, Arjun Mendhi
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A system and method for machining a work-piece in restrictive access operating position is disclosed. The system includes a robot arm adapted to access the bottom face of the work-piece; a computation means adapted to compute a central line on the bottom face while ascertaining an area of overlap that is accessible from all sides of the work-piece; and a robot controller adapted to sequentially maneuver the robot arm from one side of the work-piece to other side of the work-piece on the bottom face. Other embodiments are also disclosed.
Claims11
A robotic system for machining a work-piece in restrictive access operating position, said system comprising:
- a robot arm adapted to access the face of the work-piece with restricted reach of the robot, such as the bottom face of a horizontal work piece;
- a computation means adapted to compute positional coordinates of the tool tip, and a central line on the bottom face while ascertaining an area of overlap that is accessible from all sides of the work-piece;
- a robot controller adapted to sequentially maneuver the robot arm from one side of the work-piece to other side of said work-piece on the face with restricted reach;
- and
- a machining zone adapted to enable a finite area of overlap between the accessible portion on the face of work-piece with restricted reach of robotic arm, from separate directions of approach.
A method to machine a work-piece in a restrictive access operating position, said method comprising:
- a robotic aim sequentially approaching bottom face of said work-piece for machining a notch-less cut-out profile;
- dividing said bottom face into almost equal halves by a dynamic divider to ascertain an area of overlap from at least two sides of said work-piece;
- shifting said dynamic divider considering each contour on the bottom face, according to its position relative to the area of overlap;
- splitting those particular contours which intersect both boundaries of the area of overlap, and generate two independent non-closed contours by appending a lead-in at its start point and a lead-out at its end-point;
- repeating the process for each independent contour on the bottom face, until no other contours are remaining;
- and
- robot operating on the bottom face in order of contours in the queue for approach from each direction.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.