Programming of painting robots with Virtual Reality
The painter holds a kind of transmitter in his hand (on the right in Figure 2) whose movements are recorded in space by two detectors. Those movements are transmitted in real time to a powerful PC as well. A special software on the PC now combines all the information to a virtual image, which allows the painter to "paint" the workpiece, as he would do in reality.
The actual purchase costs of the hardware (VR glasses, PC, detectors) are under € 10,000.
The workpiece to be painted is read into a special software as a 3-D CAD model. This software also includes a "virtual robot controller". The trajectories of the paint spray gun relative to the workpiece are stored in the PC. With the help of the virtual controller, this information can now be transferred to the kinematics of the particular painting robot used. The painting program created in this way is then reworked on the PC to make minor corrections and optimizations if necessary. Thereafter nothing stands in the way for the use in the painting line.
