Which is the best simulating tool ?

Harish 2016-10-26

Is there is any simulation tool that can simulate the movement and working of human operator and cobot along with integrated safety and vision sensors?

Tyler_Berryman 2016-10-24

@Harish Could you indicate the type of robot you will be using? A few robotics companies offer simulation software that includes safety modules, but these simulation packages are often dependent on the brand of the robot.

Harish 2016-10-24

@Tyler_Berryman I would like to use UR5 along with its vision and force torque sensor. Thank you in advance.

Tyler_Berryman 2016-10-24

@Harish What kind of sensors will you be using to enhance the safety of your robotic cell? Will you be using light curtains or area scanners? Here are a few companies that offer develop software for offline simulation with Universal Robots:

Universal Robots offers simulation software that you can use, this software package can be downloaded on the support page of the Universal Robots website.
RoboDK also offers simulation software for Universal Robots. @Albert Could the RoboDK software be used to evaluate the safety of a robotic manufacturing cell?
I believe that Energid also offers a software package that you could use to simulate various safety scenarios. @Dan_Dockter Could you give us an idea on how Harish could use the Energid software for safety simulations?
Artiminds also offers a software package for easy Offline programming and simulation for Universal Robots. @Simon Would you like to share any information regarding the use of Artiminds in simulating safety scenarios?

Harish 2016-10-25

@Tyler_Berrymann I want use safety curtain and laser scanner. Along with that, I want to simulate the response of different sensors according to movement of human operator in the shared work-space. I found RoboDK very good in simulating the working of robot and its tool. Any suggestion, related to human operator simulation will be very helpful. Thank you.

Gil 2016-10-27

Another simulation tool that is well known and common in the automotive industry is Tecnomatix Process Simulate. Watch following movie that shows many features that can be used for cobots safety analysis.

https://youtu.be/oOKGlfBO7GA

Tyler_Berryman 2016-10-28

@Gil Thank you for your input! Can you use any robot with the Tecnomatix Process Simulate package? How can you interface area scanners and light curtains into the simulations using this software? Do you have to program the path of the workers in the factory to simulate the safety around the robot?

Gil 2016-10-30

@Tyler_Berrymann Process simulate supports most of the common robot brands, like ABB, Fanuc, Kuka, UR and many others. Which robot brand/model are you looking at? Process Simulate has a module to interact with smart devices via signals. light and proximity sensors are supported so I assume it can be used to interface with area scanners and light curtains. Human simulation requires simple wizard-driven tool to be used and helps when evaluating safety of cobots environment. some aspects of the safety analysis does not require the real worker's path definition.
Read more about it here.