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[Oct 2005]
Graduates Help Develop Robot Software at Heavy Clay Company
Graduates of the Technical College in Osnabrueck, Germany have been involved in developing software at Keller HCW GmbH (Ibbenbueren-Laggenbeck, Germany). Keller HCW routinely offers students of different disciplines the possibility to carry out practical work in connection with the preparation of their diploma theses.
"In our departments, the professional performance and engagement of the students are particularly advanced," explained the head of Keller's electrical engineering, automation and process control engineering, Dipl-Ing Josef Schroeter. "In close cooperation with universities and technical colleges we develop future-oriented concepts for the ceramic industry. With the Keller K-matic system we set the benchmark in the automation of heavy clay processes. Our customers know and appreciate that Keller's products consistently meet the requirements for practical use. Absolute reliability of plant control and monitoring systems, future security with at the same time a high operating convenience and rapid learning are advantages which benefit our customers."
The task of the Osnabrueck graduates was to develop the software for the parameterisation of robot setting plants by means of Java3D. This opportunity was taken up by Christian Deddens and Christian Linkemeyer - students of Engineering Science and Computer Science at the Technical College. They prepared jointly a diploma thesis entitled 'Design and realisation of a graphical 3D surface including analysis of development tools (VRML, X3D, Java3D) for the parameterisation of robot setting plants by using relational databases and communication via Ethernet TCP/IP to the robot'.
The graduates developed the application for the graphical generation of setting patterns for robot setting plants. From the data of a generated setting pattern, robot programmes are automatically prepared and transmitted to the robot by means of the network (Ethernet). The robot programmes are integrated into the existing programme pack of the robot control system.
Thus, the newly generated setting pattern can be set on tunnel kiln cars by means of the robot. In future, this application will be used with robot setting plants and will support brick factory personnel with the generation of setting loads. This programme application can be used on standard PCs with a Windows(tm) operating system. The generation and testing of a setting load can be made offline at the PC.
By means of the operating surface of the application, setting loads can be easily generated, edited and stored. Furthermore, it is possible to copy or to delete setting loads. In order to generate a setting load, firstly the gripper loadings have to be defined and these can be placed at the requested position on the operating surface to create a complete setting load.
As soon as the setting load has been completely configured, the data can be transmitted to the robot via the network. The two-dimensional and three-dimensional representations of the setting load provide graphical support and facilitate parameterisation.
Modifications of the position of brick rows, gripper loadings and setting layers can be tracked optically. Therefore, faulty inputs can be avoided and can be checked as to whether the requested setting load has been created. Up until now, unwanted effects or faulty inputs on the generation of a setting load could only be determined on the implementation of the robot programme. Furthermore, complicated programming modifications, which for the creation of a new setting load previously had to be carried out directly on the robot, are no longer necessary.
www.keller-hcw.de
ENDS