Design and implementation of a robotic model for Virtual Reality (VR) application

Abstract

In this project, a virtual robotic environment of the Flexible Manufacturing System (FMS) laboratory at Kg Wai, UniMAP has been developed. The virtual robotic environment consists of two ABB robots and a conveyor system. The development of virtual environment integrates Autodesk Inventor 9.0 CAD system with 3D Studio Max and a Cortona VR player. Autodesk Inventor 9.0 is used to model and assembled the ABB robot components and the conveyor system. The 3D Studio Max is a tool to obtain a 3D graphics models for the manufacturing lines and is used in this project in order to transfer the CAD model into Virtual Reality Modeling Language (VRML) format. From the modeling in Autodesk Inventor, it must be convert to format file which is IGES file before import them to 3ds Max. In 3ds Max, that layout must be exported to another format file which is ‘.wrl’ or VRML. The VRML format is necessary for the VR environment simulation. The VR environment is simulated in the Internet Explorer (I.E) which is web browser via Cortona VR player plug-in by just drag the ‘.wrl’ files to window web browser. The simulation layout of Flexible Manufacturing System will appear in web page window and it can be analyzed.