Rapid prototyping within the simulation and control platform for mechatronics.

Dolga, Lia ; Dolga, Valer ; Filipescu, Hannelore 等

Abstract: An efficient and rapid design of a mechatronic product requires rapid prototyping in different design stages. The paper describes a simulation and control platform that includes rapid prototyping modules and the analyses that determined the selection of different platform components. A new proposal for the rapid prototyping taxonomy is exposed.

Key words: Rapid prototyping, taxonomy, control, dSPACE.

1. INTRODUCTION

In the international areas, within fields like mechatronics, robotics, industrial automation, automotive technology, noise and vibrations, industrial aviation etc., a strong tendency of drastic time reduction in developing new tasks is established. The rapid shift from the phase of research- design to the phase of simulation and then to the practical implementation requires new designing and testing concepts and appropriate associated procedures. This dilemma became the main subject of a Romanian national excellence research grant "Simulation, Control and Testing Platform with Applications in Mechatronics <<ConMec>>", which is coordinated by the Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, Romania. The authors of this paper are team members representing the "Politehnica" University of Timisoara Romania; they intend to realize a critical analysis of the possibilities to develop an applicative platform with comprehensive tasks of rapid prototyping within the mechatronic field.

2. THE IDIOM OF RAPID PROTOTYPING

The idiom of "rapid prototyping" is extensive and outlines amazing facilities in creating new products; it ensures the possibility to demonstrate the veracity of a concept or an idea.

Reference bibliography widely details the philosophy of rapid prototyping (Aust & Isaacson, 2005; Drieessen et al., 1999; Ramamoorthy et al., 2002). Rapid prototyping describes a specific but in the same time general software method (Wikipedia, 2007). This method replaces the traditional technical tools for testing and experimenting by a computer and a set of computer programs. The computer is able to create and manipulate in a realistic way virtual objects; specific procedures to build them and to stage-manage these objects are available in a rapid prototyping environment (Bona et al., 2003). Opinions are not always convergent, others including the associated hardware in rapid prototyping tools.

Even the word "rapid" is relative (Wikipedia, 2007): when it is about freeform fabrication techniques, the machining may last one to tens of hours, depending on the machined volume, the complexity of the shape and the type of the machine. When the term is applied in micro technologies, then it is correct, because the machining time is very short and parts can be built in parallel. The requirement of a comprehensive development of rapid prototyping tasks in the ConMec platform gives good reason for the authors' studies. Figure 1 shows the authors proposal for the taxonomy of rapid prototyping.

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3. CONMEC & THE RAPID PROTOTYPING TASK

The implementation of the concept of "rapid prototyping" in its multiple meanings generated the structure of the ConMec platform for the partner CEEX_2 ("Politehnica" UT, Mechatronics Department). Figure 2 illustrates the platform modularization (Dolga et al. 2006). An essential component of the platform is dedicated to the rapid prototyping in the control task, focused on the dSPACE equipment.

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In establishing the hardware solution for the rapid prototyping in the control task, the team considered initially more alternatives. The authors used six criteria to compare these alternatives: the processor type, the memory, the inputs and the outputs, the signal conditioning, the operating mode and the platform sensitivity. The dSPACE solution gained the maximum score. The current design procedure of the controller uses the same software and hardware platform for design, simulation and implementation processes (Figure 3). dSPACE equipment perfectly matches this requisite.

The software tools for rapid prototyping had to answer to the scalable design concept in the control task and were designated after a careful and critical evaluation of more available environments: Matlab/ Simulink, Dymola, 20-Sim and LabView. Matlab/ Simulink and LabView were finally acquired, due to the advantages of a good compatibility with the dSPACE equipment to the offered services for other prototyping tasks. LabView is used in the platform for its strong qualities in data acquisition and in user interfaces programming. Matlab/ Simulink lays the foundation for a method that allows design and simulation code to be implemented directly on hardware.

The fast development of high quality mechatronic products involves the rapid prototyping solution for the technology. In the meantime, the viable hardware solution is a 3D printer included in the platform. In support of the software component, the multitask CATIA V5 R17 environment is used for shape design, for generating the rapid prototyping model, for project management and for other optional design tasks.

Examples of accomplished tasks within the platform using different software components are given in Figure 4-6.

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4. CONCLUSIONS

The simulation and control platform for mechatronics is still in development. The current structure already allowed valuable results. They are especially important with respect to each module of the platform. The subsequent applications have to develop the integration aspect of different platform tasks.

The platform already proves an educational value besides the scientific value it incorporates.

5. REFERENCES

Aust, R. & Isaacson, R. (2005). Designing and Evaluating User Interfaces for eLearning, Proceedings of World Conference on E-Learning in Corporate, Government, Healthcare, and Higher Education, pp 1195-1202, G. Richards (Ed.), Chesapeake, VA

Bona, B.; Indri, M. & Smaldone, N. (2003) Architectures for rapid prototyping of model-based robot controllers, In: Advances in control of articulated and mobile robots, ISBN 978-3-540-20783-2, Springer Berlin, Heidelberg

Dolga, V. et al. (2006). Simulation, Control and Testing Platform with Applications in Mechatronics <<ConMec>>. Studiu tehnic si analiza de sistem, CEEX 112--faza I, Available from: www.mec.upt.ro/~dolga/mechatronics_gr.htm, Accessed: 2007-05-30

Driessen, Ir; Woerden, J.A.; Bolmsjo, G. & Buckmann, O. (1999). A rapid prototyping environment for mobile rehabilitation robotics, Proceedings of International Conf. on Rehabilitation Robotics, pp.129-135, Stanford, CA

Ramamoorthy, S.; Andrade, H. & Chandhoke, S. (2002). Rapid prototyping for control, Sensors, Vol.21, no.2, march 2002, pp.1-12

* (2007). Rapid prototyping, Available from: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rapid_prototyping Accessed: 2007-05-20