Analyzing Targets for Robots

You can analyze the reachable and feasible zones around the free axis associated with a weld target for one or more robots.

The states yielded by analysis are:

Feasible: the target can be reached without a collision.
Reachable: the target can be reached, but the robot and weld gun collides with the products or tooling.
Unreachable: the target cannot be reached by the robot.

When analyzing welds for multiple robots, you can check the welds that are unreachable or unfeasible by the current robot against all of the other robots under the current active simulation object (ASO) and reassign those welds to a different robot.

Note: In a fixed TCP scenario, mount the gripper on the robot and snap the part to the gripper prior to executing the steps below. Analyze Targets depends on this initial state of the part.

This task shows you how to:

Set Up the Scenario for Analysis
Run the Simulation and Analyze the Results

Before you begin: To use this command, you must be in 3D Simulation. In addition:

Create or open a manufacturing simulation containing the required PPR context.
Open the Robot Spot Simulation app in 3D Simulation.

Set Up the Scenario for Analysis

You can select the resources, fasteners, and collision objects to be considered for the analysis.

In 3D Simulation, designate a robot or a physical organizational resource as the ASO.
From the Analysis & Output section of the action bar, click Analyze Targets .
The Spot Analysis Scenario dialog box appears.

If a physical organizational resource is the ASO, all of the robots in the physical organizational resource are considered for analysis and listed in the Robot list. Depending on the current selected robot, the corresponding weld analysis data (trajectories, tool profiles, configs and welds) is displayed.
- Multiple robot analysis is not supported for fixed TCP robots. If the physical organizational resource has fixed TCP robots and mobile TCP robots, only the mobile TCP robots are considered for the analysis. Each fixed TCP robot must be analyzed separately.
- If the Point Fastening operations implemented by the robot do not have spot weld trajectories, a new spot weld trajectory is automatically created for each point fastening operation and all of the manufacturing welds are added to Welds in the Analyse Target Orientation dialog box.
- If the robot implements a General operation and the Point Fastening operations owned by the General operation do not have spot weld trajectories, a new spot weld trajectory is automatically created for each Point Fastening operation.
Select a robot from the Robot list.

The dialog box is updated with the weld details corresponding to the selected trajectory. The entries in Tool Profiles, Robot Configs, and Fasteners/Welds frames are specific to the selected robot in the list.

Note:
Point Fastening operations, General operations, spot weld trajectories or compound spot trajectories can be selected at any time while Analyze Targets is active. Selecting any of these entities adds the corresponding manufacturing welds to the Analyze Target Orientation dialog box.

If a General operation is selected, manufacturing welds of the spot weld trajectories aggregated under child Point Fastening operations are added to the Welds list. Spot weld trajectories are created for any child Point Fastening operations that do not contain a spot weld trajectory.

If a Point Fastening operation is selected that already contains a spot weld trajectory, the manufacturing welds of the spot weld trajectory are selected and added to the Welds list. If the Point Fastening operation does not contain a spot weld trajectory, a new spot weld trajectory is created.
Select a weld gun.

Note: If you want to use any of the weld guns defined as can-use resources on the process or the weld guns associated with the trajectory in the weld analysis, you must create tool profiles on the robot for each weld gun before using Analyze Targets .

Note: Fixed TCP Tool Profiles are listed with a ToolType of Stationary.

Note: Multiple tool profiles can be selected by pressing the Ctrl key on the keyboard as selections are made.
Double-click a row in the Tool Profiles list to select a different home position for a particular weld gun.

The Home Positions dialog box appears.

Select one of the available home positions in the list followed by OK to set it as the current home position. You can select multiple positions by holding the Ctrl key as you make selections.
Select a configuration for the selected robot from the Configs list under Robot Configs.

Note: Multiple configs can be selected by pressing Ctrl as selections are made.
Select and edit welds as needed in the Fasteners/Welds list.

Welds can be removed from the list by selecting them and clicking Remove. All welds can be removed with Remove All. Note that welds removed from the list are not removed from the data.
In the Parameters frame, select Compute from Start angle and End angle to force the computation from the specified Start Angle to End Angle even if a feasible solution is found. When not selected, the computation for a fastener/weld stops as soon as a feasible solution is found.
Select Check for collision to check for any collisions in addition to the reachability check. When not selected, only a reachability check is performed.
Select Compute with Tool flipped to check the reachability status at each fastener location with the tool flipped.
Set the Collision Tolerance value.

This tolerance is used for safety checking. If the robot and weld gun move closer to the collision objects than the specified distance, the two groups are considered in collision.
Set the Computation step angle to define the angle step at which the weld gun should be rotated for computation.
Collision objects specifies the number of objects that are in collision. To edit/view the collision list, select Edit the list of collision objects .
The Manage Collision Objects dialog box appears.

In the Robot parts used for collision frame:
- By default, the Selected Parts list contains all the parts of the robot except its base, and Available Objects list contains only the robot base.
- Objects in each of the lists are displayed in the respective viewer below each list.
- You can move any object between Available Parts and Selected Parts lists using the arrow buttons and , or by double clicking the object to move in the viewer.
- Selected objects are cross-highlighted between entries in the list, the viewer below the list, and in the work area.
In the Collision objects frame:
- By default, Include all Objects is enabled. This means the Collision Parts list includes all of the objects except for those objects in the Robot parts used for Collision list.
- You can remove any part from the list if that part should not be considered for collision analysis by selecting the object followed by Remove object .
- You can empty the Collision objects list by deselecting Include all objects .
Click OK to accept any changes made and close the Manage Collision Objects dialog box. Collision objects in the Spot Analysis Scenario dialog is updated with the proper number of objects.
After all of the analysis parameters are set, click OK in the Spot Scenario Analysis dialog box.
The settings are stored in the current scenario.
- If no welds are chosen for a given robot, that robot is not considered for analysis and a notification is displayed.
- If no tool profile is selected for a robot, a notification is displayed.

Run the Simulation and Analyze the Results

You can run the simulation and generate the results, then edit the reachable targets as needed.

Click Simulate and Generate Results .
The Simulate and Generate Results dialog box appears.
Click OK in the Simulate and Generate Results dialog box.

The current scenario is executed and the progress of the simulation is displayed in the progress bar. You can stop the simulation any time by clicking Cancel.

Once the simulation is complete, new results corresponding to the specification are created under the Scenarios side tab.

In the Analysis & Output section of the action bar, click Analyze Results

to view the results of the analysis.

The Analyze Results dialog box is displayed.

The analyzed fasteners are listed in the first column. Each subsequent column represents the reachability status for each robot config and tool specified in the analysis scenario. Cells are color-coded to represent the status of each fastener, where:

indicates that the target is reachable
indicates that the target is fixable
indicates that the target is unfixable

Default colors can be changed by clicking Options for Color Customization and clicking the color swatch in the Color Customization and Legends dialog box.

The Analyze Results dialog box also provides following commands:


	Lock/Unlock Translation toggles the lock or unlock status of the translation of selected welds.
	Snap/Unsnap Tool toggles whether the tool is snapped to the selected weld.
	Make Product Transucent determines the product translucency. This can help when the reach disc appears obstructed by the product.
	Section Preferences provides options to define the section plane when performing sectioning at the weld location.
	Save Section Result saves the section result in a representation of the given name.
	Launch Simulation launches a partial simulation.
	Check Unfixable Welds checks unfixable welds against other robot(s) in the scenario.
	Auto Assign Welds to Resources assigns welds to robots based on the reach status, such that they are evenly distributed among the robots used in the analysis. When Assign Nearest is selected, welds are assigned to a robot based on reach status and proximity to the weld.

In the Analyze Results dialog box, click a colored cell.

The robot snaps to the selected target and the Reach disc appears.

A context toolbar also appears, and provides the following commands:


	RotateX Closest rotates the gun to the center of closest green zone (reachable zone).
	RotateX Biggest rotates the gun to the center of the biggest green zone (reachable zone) when there are multiple green zones.
	Commit Position saves a modified manufacturing weld location.
	Assign Resource allows you to assign a resource to an unassigned fastener.
	Reset to Last Commited returns a modified orientation to the last committed position.
	Generate Section displays a 2D sectional view of the current position in the Sectional View dialog box.

You can modify the orientation of the gun around the approach axis using the manipulator, as well as modify the position and orientation.
Click Commit Position in the context toolbar to save the modified location.

The new position is saved, and the color of the cell for the selected target becomes green.
Close the Analyze Results dialog box when finished.