Off-line robot palletizing simulator using optimized pattern and trajectory generation algorithm

Palletizing tasks are necessary to promote efficiency of storage and shipping. These tasks, however, involve some of the most monotonous and physically demanding labor in the factory. Thus, many types of robot palletizing systems have been developed, although many robot motion commands still depend on the teach pendent. That is, the operator inputs the motion command lines one by one. This is very troublesome and, most importantly, the user must know how to type the code. We propose a new GUI for the palletizing system that can be used more conveniently. To do this, we used the PLP “Fast Algorithm” and 3-D auto-patterning visualization. The 3-D patterning process includes the following. First, an operator can identify the results of the task and edit them. Second, the operator passes the position values of objects to a robot simulator. Using those positions, a palletizing operation can be simulated. We used the wide used industrial model and analyzed the kinematics and dynamics to create a robot simulator. In this paper we propose a 3-D patterning algorithm, 3-D robot-palletizing simulator, and modified trajectory generation algorithm, “Overlapped method” to reduce the computing load.