Simulation of Non-Rigid Materials Handling

Many industrial processes are concerned with the manufacturing of nonrigid products or of automated systems that manipulate them. In this report, we present some testing cases and applications requiring the simulation of non-rigid material automatic handling. The testing cases have been carried out within the framework of international projects funded by the European Union. They are related to different industrial applications (e.g., automotive, aeronautics, and clothing) and require the simulation of different types of non-rigid materials, such as fabric, wire and foam. To this extent, we have used a software environment called Soft-World, which allows the designer to model and simulate handling robots integrated with the static and dynamic behavior of the material. Besides, we have developed a non-rigid materials simulator integrated with haptic devices for modeling and simulating the touch of non-rigid objects.