Realistic Modeling and Dynamic Simulation of KUKA KR5 Robot using RecurDyn

The design of an industrial robot often involves a multi-body mechanical system driven by a microprocessor based sophisticated control system. With the advent of various dynamic simulation packages (ExADAMS, RecurDyn, Autodesk Inventor etc.), one can easily perform dynamic simulation of complex mechanical systems assuming an oversimplified control scheme. Similarly, with various control system simulation packages (ExMATLAB/Simulink, LabVIEW etc.), one can perform the task of control system simulation but without a realistic model of the plant. For performing dynamic co-simulation of any robot, RecurDyn and Simulink can be connected such that RecurDyn provides the actual plant model to Simulink for its control system simulation. This strategy saves a lot of time as one need not derive the complex kinematics and dynamics equations of the robot to prepare its mathematical model in MATLAB/Simulink. However, with the introduction of CoLink toolkit in RecurDyn, the whole task of dynamic and control system simulation can be performed independently by RecurDyn. In this paper, we present realistic modeling and dynamic simulation of a KUKA KR5 robotic manipulator with the help of RecurDyn software. CAD assembly of the robot is first imported in the RecurDyn environment. Then, different mechanical joints, solid contacts, plant inputs and plant outputs are defined and RecurDyn is connected to the CoLink interface. Realistic control system is modeled in CoLink to provide cycloidal trajectories with the help of available CoLink blocks. These are fed as input to each joint and dynamic simulation is performed. Using the plot tool in RecurDyn, time dependent driving torque variation at joint 1 is plotted against time (See Figure 2). From these curves, maximum torque required at each joint can be used for selection of actuators, gear box and other purposes. This will also help students in learning and understanding robot kinematics and dynamics concepts. In future, motor model in CoLink and exact dynamic parameters of the robot and joint friction in RecurDyn will be implemented, with control feedback loop so as to get a realistic co-simulation of control system and dynamics. Fig. 1 KUKA KR5 Assembly Fig. 2 Torque v/s time (Joint1) The 6th Asian Conference on Multibody Dynamics August 26-30, 2012, Shanghai, China Realistic Modeling and Dynamic Simulation of KUKA KR5 Robot using RecurDyn Shivesh Kumar Department of Mechanical Engineering National Institute of Technology Karnataka Surathkal, Karnataka-575025, India Email: shivesh.mecheng@gmail.com Rajeevlochana C.G. Department of Mechanical Engineering Indian Institute of Technology Delhi Hauz Khas, New Delhi-110016, India Email: rajeevlochan.iitd@gmail.com Subir Kumar Saha Department of Mechanical Engineering Indian Institute of Technology Delhi Hauz Khas, New Delhi-110016, India Email: saha@mech.iitd.ac.in