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I got an Omron Viper 850 robot arm with a spindle mounted with a cutter. It is controlled via EV+ programming (EV+ is a programming language used in the ACE Adept Omron software to move the robot).

The idea, initially, was to use it to cut some plastic car plates that goes inside of the car. But I have a bunch of different models of car plastic plates and now I am having a bad time doing a program for every plastic plate model that I have to cut. Each program takes 1~2 days to be ready and the curves are not perfect.

The question is if theres some drawing software that enables me to take a photo from the plastic plate, delimit the borders and gets the robot to cut it. Or at least, a software for this robot that permits make some drawings and get the robot to follow the path, alike a CNC machine being controlled by MACH3 software.

Thanks in advanced.

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  • $\begingroup$ software recommendation questions are off topic here ... this question belongs at softwarerecs.stackexchange.com $\endgroup$
    – jsotola
    Jun 8, 2021 at 0:34
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    $\begingroup$ Ok. Thanks. I was already going, but I thought: why not to do this question in the robotic.SE? Jaja. Thanks $\endgroup$
    – Guilherme
    Jun 9, 2021 at 11:31

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I doubt you will find an out of the box solution, but you can piece together a solution if you have some programming knowledge.

There are many image to G-Code converters out there. You can use one of these to convert your image to G-Code. The most interesting part of this are the coordinates. Your robot is also controlled by coordinates, but instead of a G01 command (in G-Code) it has a Move command. All you need to do is write a small script that replaces the G-code syntax in the G-Code with your eV+ syntax. It does not need to be a full blown interpreter and pretty printer. These programming languages have a very simple syntax, you can just do string manipulation (replace substrings, add or remove , or ;) and it should work.

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  • $\begingroup$ Yep... initially, I thought in this way too. The problem is that the joint of the tip (where are the cutter) needs to rotate around the y axis, specially in the curves. So the joint of the "hand" of the robot, where are the cutter, will not be static like a CNC machine. As far as I know, the G-code generates only coordinates of x, y, z axis. But the robot needs to squirm too. But thanks, I appretiated your efforts. $\endgroup$
    – Guilherme
    Jun 9, 2021 at 22:59
  • $\begingroup$ So I assume your knife is fixed then (and not free to orient itself as it is being dragged). In this case you can calculate the heading angle of the knife from two consecutive points. Basically it should always face the next point. The other angles can be set as 0 and I assume this is fine, since your cutout is flat, otherwise you would not be able to cut it out based on a flat image (or you can come up with more advanced approach, like tilting it slightly to the exterior of the surface being cut). $\endgroup$
    – 50k4
    Jun 10, 2021 at 6:47
  • $\begingroup$ Thanks for the answer. I appreciate too much. The cutter are a milling cutter fixed in a spindle motor of 24000rpm. $\endgroup$
    – Guilherme
    Jun 10, 2021 at 11:37
  • $\begingroup$ Ok, I got the impression, that is it a knife like cutter. In this case, you can add 0 orientation on all three rotational axes. Since it is a milling application, the angle around your tool is not important (is redundant). If you set 0 to it, you are limiting the usable workspace of the robot. So if you are having issued with workspace limits, you might want to try to come up with a better method to calculate the angle (e.g. the further away form the base you are the larger angle you set) but this in only needed if you get into workspace limit problems with 0 orientation $\endgroup$
    – 50k4
    Jun 10, 2021 at 11:42
  • $\begingroup$ Sorry, I gave few information about the project. The robot are upside down, stucked on a structure. The reach of the robot are around 550mm, taking into consideration that are 650mm, the distance from the base of the robot to the plastic plate I have to cut. 855mm are the max reach of the robot. $\endgroup$
    – Guilherme
    Jun 10, 2021 at 12:05

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