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The University of New Mexico
(UNM) has been developing a cycle-time reduction
system for cleanup and remediation of hazardous
waste sites, as well as for advanced manufacturing
and forensics needs, with DOE. We call the system
the Robotics and Automation Design-and-Drive System,
or RADDS. The goal of the RADDS is to reduce the
amount of time between a site-defined need and
a site-delivered turnkey implementation of the
robotic and/or automation hardware that solves
the problem. The RADDS, as a design and analysis
tool, uses simulation to populate the solution
with easily changeable models of robots, grippers,
sensors, controllers, conveyors, tool changers,
and other components to meet the requirements
of the application. The preferred system, in simulation,
can then be ordered and the simulation software
can be directly converted to operate the actual
hardware when it arrives.
The open-architecture, Windows-based
RADDS simulates the overall performance of the
system. The user can easily change robots, grippers,
vision systems, control algorithms, sensors, or
any other components in the current solution to
attempt to find a more performance-effective and/or
cost-effective solution. The electrical and mechanical
interfaces between simulated components are modeled
in accord with the physical interfaces between
real components thereby performing a simulated
system integration of both the mechanical and
data linkages. The RADDS is then able to expediently
transform the simulation commands into actual
hardware operation via appropriately configured
physical device drivers. The RADDS can thus be
used to design, simulate, and then run a system
configuration. The RADDS is hierarchical, from
machine (e.g., robot within a glovebox), to line
(e.g., a series of automated glovebox units),
to site levels (e.g., a complete material processing
plant). The RADDS can also be used to train prospective
personnel while the actual system is being built
and delivered, to further shorten cycle times.
In principle, the RADDS can provide site-level
synthesis, control, and training from a laptop
computer. In short, the RADDS is a modeling- and
simulation-based design and analysis tool, that
also serves as the operating system for the final
(actual) system.
This work is supported
by the Department of Energy (DOE), as part of
its University Research Program in Robotics (URPR),
a multi-university consortium consisting of the
Universities of Florida, Michigan, New Mexico,
Tennessee-Knoxville and Texas-Austin. The Principal
Investigators at the University of New Mexico
are Profs. J. Wood, R. Lumia and G. Starr.
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