What you can learn here
Operating modes
Industrial robots have a manual test mode at reduced speed (T1, 250 mm/s maximum at the tool), a test mode at programmed speed (T2) and automatic (AUT). In AUT nobody may be inside the cell: that is why the simulator requires the door to be closed.
Enabling switch
In manual mode the robot only moves while you hold the switch in the middle position. If you let go or squeeze it fully, as a startled person would, the robot stops instantly. It is one of the most important safeguards when working with robots.
Coordinate systems
In Axes you rotate each joint separately. In World, Base and Tool you move the torch tip in a straight line and the controller computes the six angles with inverse kinematics. The table base is rotated 15°: compare how the robot moves in World and in Base.
PTP, LIN and CIRC
A PTP move takes each axis to its final angle along the path that is easiest for the robot, so the tip draws a curve. LIN forces the tip to move in a straight line and CIRC to follow an arc through an auxiliary point. Load the example and compare the orange and light-blue traces.
Singularities and limits
When axis A5 is close to 0°, axes A4 and A6 line up and the wrist loses a degree of freedom. A linear move passing through there would demand enormous rotations, so the simulator stops it. Each axis also has software limits that cannot be exceeded.
Robotic MIG/MAG welding
In the Weld tab you prepare the equipment (power source, ground clamp, gas and extractor) and set the wire feed speed, the voltage and the travel speed. The simulator computes the heat input, Q = 0.8 · U · I / v, and shows the typical defects on the bead: porosity, lack of fusion, burn-through and spatter.
Welding glasses
The arc is so bright that looking at it without a filter dazzles and burns your eyes. If you weld without putting on the glasses, the screen goes white and you see nothing; with the glasses on, everything looks dark except the arc. That is what happens in a real workshop.
Robot code
Every point you save generates its program line, with ARC ON, ARC SWI and ARC OFF on the welded segments, and its X, Y, Z, A, B, C coordinates relative to the table, in a syntax similar to that of industrial controllers. It is inspired by KUKA robots but is educational and approximate: it is not affiliated with the brand and does not replace the manufacturer’s manual or training.
Continue with the Robot Lab (SCARA and Denavit–Hartenberg kinematics), the Mechanism Lab, the angular velocity calculator or the Mechatronics Engineering path.