Getting started with Fuzzy Studio #4: Create Your First Trajectories

Again, bravo for reaching this stage, but let us not lose the rhythm. You’re probably getting ahead of yourself: creating robot paths (and thus programs). Perhaps your hands are sweating? Don’t worry, what lies ahead of you will be even easier than creating your robot cell. And you will be able to tell your friends and family that yes, you can program a robot!

Creating application trajectories

Now that your robot and its environment are set up you can create trajectories with it. Let’s get started and explore the Trajectories Panel! First Click on the Trajectories button in the top part of Fuzzy Studio to switch to the Trajectories Panel.

Robotic trajectories are created in the Trajectories Panel. Create a new trajectory by clicking the New Trajectory button.

But this trajectory is empty, so we’re going to need to add waypoints to it.

Building trajectories with waypoints

In Fuzzy Studio, all robot motions are defined using trajectories. These trajectories are defined by a series of points that we want the robot to move to and through, called waypoints. To build our application and simulate our robot’s movements, you need to create trajectories by adding waypoints together.

To add waypoints to a trajectory in Fuzzy Studio, use the available Waypoint Generators, which are powerful tools that allow you to automatically create waypoints for many types of applications. Here, for our gluing application, you’ll need to use the Contouring generator.

You have the following specifications for your bonding process:

• The glue should be applied along the edge of the large window
• The glue should be offseted 3 mm from the edge
• The glue should be on the top surface rather than right on its edge

To use the contouring generator for our example here:

1. Select the top surface of our car door around the windows
2. Press and hold the CTRL Key
3. Select one of the contours of a window. (don’t forget to keep the CTRL Key pressed)
4. On the left panel, set the decimation to 10mm and the offset to -3mm
5. Make sure chain selection is checked.

Then click on the Add to the end button in order to generate the Waypoints in the trajectory.

Add a retreat position

Now that our gluing trajectory is done, add a retreat position to your trajectory. This is the position that the robot will move to when it is done with the gluing operation. To set the retreat position, use the Current Robot Position generator.

Your goal is to have the robot start and finish it’s operations in the retreat position:

1. Select the Current Robot Position Generator
2. Select your robot’s TCP: the position and orientation marker at the tip of your tool
3. Move the robot using the Gizmo
4. Add your current TCP position at the end of our trajectory by clicking the Add to the end button
5. Change the waypoint adding order to Add at the start by clicking the arrow on the right of the Add to the end button,
6. Add your Current TCP position at the start of your trajectory by clicking the Add at the start button.

We now have a complete trajectory ready with both a gluing trajectory and a retreat position.

Saving your project

Don’t forget to save your project before leaving or closing the software! Use CTRL+S to save it. You can also use the Save Button in the top settings bar.

A saved project can be reloaded on your computer and will load the tools in your own database and the CADs at their path in your computer.

Some Tips & Tricks:

It is possible to change the order you add waypoints by clicking on the arrow on the right to select a different mode:

Add to the end will add created waypoints at the end of the Trajectory,

Add at the start will add created waypoints at the start of the Trajectory

Add after will add created waypoints after the last selected Waypoint in the Trajectory

Replace waypoints will replace all the waypoints in the Trajectory

Adjust your waypoints

Your trajectory is complete, but it is always a good idea to preview it before playing it on a real robot.

Preview Your Trajectory

Fuzzy Studio Provides a Control Bar to enable an easy preview and playing of trajectories.

In order to do that, just click the Preview button or manually move the Trajectory Slider. Then you can visualize if every part of your trajectory suits your need.

Modify Waypoints

If a portion of your trajectory doesn’t match what you want, it is possible to change every Waypoint easily by selecting them and moving them using the Params Panel or the Gizmo.

Here we can see that the elbow is a bit too straight at the top left corner of our window. This is because the glue gun is oriented in a way that makes the robot have to go further than it should. You can pretty easily imagine that turning the glue gun around it’s tip would give the robot some more freedom to move. Just like if you had to do it by hand.

We can easily change the orientation of the waypoints in the Contouring part of our trajectory to test some solutions to this problem. In Fuzzy Studio, you can tweak everything to suit your need as precisely as needed.

In the trajectory panel, select one or multiple waypoints in order to modify their parameters as needed.

Whenever you have a visible trajectories and visible waypoints in your scene you can also select one waypoint in the scene by clicking on it. You can also select multiple Waypoints from a single trajectory by selecting one and then either:

• Select another one while pressing the CTRL Key to add or remove it from the selection
• Select another one while pressing the Shift Key to add or remove it and all the waypoints in between the last selected waypoint and it from the selection

When multiple Waypoints are selected, tick the Apply rotation to all box in order to enable this mode.

If it is enabled, any rotation change applied to the last selected Waypoint (with the Gizmo or by changing its value) will copy its orientation to all the other selected ones.

Here an orientation modification on most of our waypoints removed the issue that you encountered where the elbow was a bit too straight, check it by previewing your new trajectory.

Your first application simulation is finished! Looks like you are able to automate this application.

You can play around with any of the trajectory parameters to fine tune your gluing application and see the impact on the exact trajectory execution time in the Control Bar as you make changes. In this tutorial you have only scratched the surface of what you can accomplish with the trajectory generation tools provided by Fuzzy Studio. They are like different brushes and you are the artist. Use them to create incredible robotic applications using your creativity.

From Simulation to Reality… and beyond!

Thanks to your simulation, you are now ready to run this gluing application on your real robot. How impressive is that? To do so Fuzzy Studio proposes 2 options: