Robot material processing and hardware-in-the-loop-based real-time simulations

Abstract This paper presents a cyber-physical production system that consists of a simulation, an industrial robot cell, and sensors. The industrial robot hardware, used for welding and additive manufacturing applications, is connected or “in-the-loop” with a real-time target machine on which simulations are running. These simulations are updated in real-time by the data provided by process sensors. Particular focus is given to wire-arc additive manufacturing (WAAM). Still, the cyber-physical system allows use in other robot-based material processes, such as sheet forming, (dis)assembly and material handling applications. It is also argued that the proposed cyber-physical system can be used so that it competes against the concept of using machine learning to optimize manufacturing processes. The proposed cyber-physical system enables the transition from traditional robot automation to autonomous robot systems.