Developing a Self-optimizing Robotic Excavator System with Virtual Prototyping Technology

Dynamic Simulation analysis of mechanical system based on the virtual prototyping technology can be used to simulate the actual working condition of machines to be designed. It can shorten the product development cycle by providing convenient amendments to the virtual prototype in accordance with the results of simulation. In this paper, the virtual prototype of the crank-connecting rod mechanism of mud pump was built by using the software Pro/Engineer, then the model was imported into the virtual prototyping software —ADAMS. At the same time, the restrictions and the driving mode were applied to simulate the kinematic process according to the multi-body system dynamics theory. Thus the whole dynamic analysis process of the virtual prototype was completed. Though the process, the movement process graphs such as displacement, velocity and acceleration of the piston were obtained, which validated the availability of the movement model. The design process and methodology adopted in this paper can be a valuable reference for the design and development of similar products.

With a high load capacity compared with other types of piling machines; the piling machine with extruding arms has found wider application in civil engineering construction in recent years. However, due to the complexity of soil mechanic analysis, which is a key component in the development of piling machine products, it turns to be difficult to determine the design constraints. Automatic dynamic analysis of mechanical system, based on the virtual prototyping technology, can be used to simulate the actual working condition of machines to be designed. It shortens the product development cycle by providing convenient amendments to the virtual prototype in accordance with the results of simulation. To begin with, this paper builds the virtual prototype of a new type of piling machine with extruding arms. Thereafter, the load distribution exerted on the extruding arms during the extruding action, and the force curve of the extruding arms are obtained by the theoretical analysis of soil mechanics. Finally, taking the actual working condition into consideration, a kinetic and dynamic simulation analysis of the virtual prototype is made using software ADAMS and a further discussion is presented. The design process and methodology adopted in this paper can be a valuable reference for the design and development of similar products.

The exoskeleton robot enhances the wearer's strength and plays an important role in various applications such as disaster relief, battlefield, rehabilitation, etc. The hydraulic system is often used to actuate the locomotion robotics for the advantages of high power-to-mass ratio, large force output, and so on. In this paper, the dynamic simulation of a hydraulic-driven exoskeleton robot is presented. Based on virtual prototyping, the controller and the parameters of the hydraulic system are determined and verified by modeling the driven system in AMESim, while the robot dynamic behavior is analyzed by building the robot dynamic model in ADAMS. The model of the prime mover, an IC engine, is simplified to reflect its torque-speed property rather than the complicated physical and chemical changes in the combustion cycle. In the simulation, the controller is determined first by employing a sufficient constant flow source to replace the engine model and the pump. Then the parameters of the hydraulic system are verified based on the determined controller. Lastly, the dynamic behavior of the exoskeleton robot is predicted by tracking the input reference from the Clinical Gait Analysis (CGA) data. The simulation results indicate that the designed exoskeleton robot can achieve expected working conditions. Experiments are set up on the exoskeleton robot prototype to validate the virtual prototype. The agreement of the results from simulation and experiments confirms that the virtual prototype predicts the dynamic behavior of the exoskeleton robot reliably.

Based on the structure model of the parallel hybrid electric vehicle (PHVE) driving system, this paper has been established the solid model of the parts and assemblies of the above system. Based on the virtual prototyping technology, the solid models of driving system has been added tangent force and gear pair, the numerical solution of the virtual prototype has been discussed. The virtual prototype model of driving system has been established and simulated by software. The simulation had been taken under the following conditions of the vehicle: start stage, braking stage and the FUD2 cycling stage by simulating input and output rotational speed of the driving system. The simulation indicated the rotational speed matching conditions of the two power sources. The results of simulation are the PHVE can reduce the energy loss of braking and idling, which is contributed to energy saving and environmental protection. The virtual prototyping technology for PHVE simulation can save the prototype manufacturing costs and shorten the researching cycle. This paper provides a reference to the design of similar products and the manufacture of prototype in the future.

Virtual prototyping practice and technologies are developing fast and moving from the traditional industrial sectors that have pushed their development (automotive, aeronautical) to new sectors, like the fashion sector, that is far from them, but anyway economically important. The concept of Virtual Prototyping has been built upon a bottom up approach. Tools oriented to different phases of the product development process (CAD, CAM, CAE, etc.) have been developed separately, without any intersection or anything in common among them, except for the idea that the geometrical model of the object is the reference point for the all phases. Actually, each of these tools simulates a single aspect/characteristic of the future product: the shape, the appearance, the manufacturability, the strain, the physical behaviour, etc. On top of them, Virtual Prototyping was developed with multiple aims. First, it aimed at integrating into a unique “object” all the characteristics that are uniquely formalised, and that can be uniquely simulated, so allowing an integration of all the interrelations among the all product aspects. Another characteristic of Virtual Prototyping concerns its use in validation. This has raised the need to make compatible the context where the prototype can or could be virtually operating, in terms of digital modelling. Therefore, the Virtual Prototype can be seen as a correlated set of dedicated models able to simulate specific aspects and models of interaction modalities. The paper presents the key aspects of Virtual Prototyping and enabling technologies in the fashion sector, presenting their benefits and the shortcomings that still require research and development.

Swing movable teeth reducer is a new type of small teeth difference planetary gear reducer, which is used to transmit the rotary motion and power between two shafts with same axis. It is important to carry on the systematic design and performance simulation of the reducer and seek the optimization design of the products by the virtual prototyping. Based on the study of the principles and characteristics of the swing movable teeth transmission, this study established the virtual prototype and achieved the dynamical simulation of the reducer by CAD/CAE software. The rotate speed and force analysis proved the feasibility of the model.

In order to test the dynamic characteristics of the shock test bed for gun breechblock system expediently, the dynamic model was established based on the virtual prototype technology. The three-dimensional solid model of each part was established and assembled by software Pro/Engineer. Then the whole model was imported into the dynamic software MSC.ADAMS through the interface, Mechanism/Pro, between the two software. Then the constraints, contacts or spring force between each two parts were added in the model according to the relation in practice. The force outside was imposed on the bearing part. After that, the virtual prototype model was established. With the model, simulation was processed and the dynamic characteristics of the parts of the shock test bed were tested under different conditions. The test results show that the model is tallies with the physical prototype and can be used to analyze the dynamic characteristics of the shock test bed parts.

The paper introduces virtual prototyping modelling technology of beam pumping unit by Pro/E software. The model is imported to ADAMS software to make kinematics and dynamics simulation; and then is imported to ANSYS software to make finite element method analysis. After optimising parts and structures by ADAMS simulation and ANSYS engineering analysis, virtual prototyping model of beam pumping unit is obtained; it provides a basis for beam pumping unit design.

With the fast development of the aerospace, the design and manufacture of landing gear are becoming hot topics nowadays. The development and application of the Virtual Prototyping Technology (VPT) have opened up a new field of the design and manufacture of the aircraft, the design, manufacture and test of the aircraft have made qualitative leaps in concept and method. Modeling and Simulation Techniques have been applied to Aircraft equipment manufacturing through the whole lifecycle. The technique of virtual prototypes shorten the development cycle of the design and manufacture process of landing gear and improve the design quality, reduce the cost of development. This paper discusses the current research progress of the landing gear simulation based on VPT. Classify the simulation methods of landing gear and comprehensively analyze the current research status of various co-simulation, finally point out the difficulties and the future tendency of landing gear simulation.

Based on Virtual Prototyping Technology, the co-simulation technology for mining machinery has been studied and applied. Hydraulic support is used as an example and the whole virtual prototype model of hydraulic ramming device was established, the co-simulation between mechanical system and control system is realized by means of software ADAMS and EASY5. The response of hydraulic support's mechanical system and hydraulic system can be forecasted through simulating the real working conductions in ADAMS.

A particular emphasis is placed on the virtual prototype technology(VPT) of axial piston pump.With this technology it is convenient and flexible to build a complicated 3D virtual based on real physical model.The actual kinematics pairs of the parts were added on the model.The fluid characters were calculated by hydraulic software.The shape of the parts, the flexible body of parts, etc were improved in this prototype.So the virtual prototype of piston pump can work in computer like a real piston pump, and the flow ripple, pressure pulsation, motion principle, stress of parts, etc can be investigated.The development of the VPT is introduced at the beginning, and the modeling process of the virtual prototype is explained.Then a special emphasis is laid on the relationship between the dynamics model and the hydraulic model, and the simulations on the flow ripple, pressure pulsation, motion principle, the stress and strain distribution of the middle shaft and piston are operated.Finally, the advantages and disadvantages of the VPT are discussed.The improved virtual prototype of piston pump more tally with the real situation and the VPT has a great potential in simulation on hydraulic components.

This study presents a methodology used in the design certification of a battery module for electric vehicle applications. The methodology combines virtual and physical techniques to assess the structure under mechanical shock testing, according to the standards’ requirements. Virtual prototyping is used to quantify parameters as stresses and deformations. Performed simulations using the virtual prototype are validated by testing the physical prototype, which allows for assessing various design parameters with a high level of confidence. The testing of a physical prototype is performed using specialized equipment—a mechanical shock test bench—which is developed and manufactured especially for this task. The presented methodology is demonstrated in an industrial use case, and the main contribution of this study is related to the way the combination of virtual and physical prototyping and testing is used.

The approach of the computional simulation in the virtual prototyping is applied to design the system of home robot. By means of three-dimensional (3-D) real scene modeling, the virtual enviroment of family rooms and 3-D entity models of virtual home robot are established on Silicon graphics workstation. The kinematics model of home robot is derived for degree of freedom motions. The scenes of the virtual enviroment are changing with the movements of the observers viewpoint. So the 3-D scenes can simulate the images taken by the camera as the viewpoint of the channel is set on the camera of virtual home robot. The data of the odometer is simulated by the parameters that label the numbers of wheels rotations. In order to verify feasibility of the virtual home robot system, the simulation experiment is presented as the virtual home robot roaming in the virtual environment of family rooms. The geometric model of each part of home robot is articulated as a node tree to be put into the virtual enviroment. The results of the experiments show that the technology of virtual prototype can lead good synergy between the fields of virtual reality and Robotics.© (2004) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.

Internet technology opens up another domain for building future CAD/CAM environment. The environment will be global, network-centric, and spatially distributed. In this paper, we present a new approach to network-centric virtual prototyping (NetVP) in a distributed design environment. The presented approach combines the current virtual assembly modeling and analysis technique with distributed computing and communication technology for supporting virtual prototyping activities over the network. This paper focuses on interoperability, shape representation, and geometric processing for distributed virtual prototyping. STEP standard and CORBA-based interfaces allow the bi-directional communication between the CAD model and virtual prototyping model, which makes it possible to solve the problems of interoperability, heterogeneity of platforms, and data sharing. STEP AP203 is utilized as a means of transferring and sharing product models. In addition, Attributed Abstracted B-rep (AAB) is introduced as 3D shape abstraction for transparent and efficient transmission of 3D models and for the maintenance of naming consistency between CAD models and virtual prototyping models over the network. Further, this paper discusses geometric processings needed for distributed virtual prototyping activities such as collision detection and interactive assembly modeling.

Combining the theory of dynamics with the finite element method, this paper proposed a approach of the vibration measure about dynamical balancing experiment table of machinery based on Virtual Prototyping (VP) technology which integrates CAD, CAE and visual technologies, etc. Furthermore, the bearing pedestal in the experiment table has been transformed into a flexible body, the vibration state was analyzed under different conditions. The degree of dynamical balancing about mechanism can be obtained at design stage according to the simulation method. The engineering application demonstrates the feasibility and practicability for the actual dynamical balancing of the complex machinery.