Ideas requested: How to simulate component degradation?

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HiImSimon
Posts: 1
Joined: 19 Jan 2022, 17:26

Ideas requested: How to simulate component degradation?

Post by HiImSimon »

Dear Community,

I am currently considering using CoppeliaSim for my research in predictive maintenance for discrete manufacturing equipment. I have already done some tests with CoppeliaSim and got some intuition for the simulator. The first impression is that it could be a good fit.

Now I am thinking how to model component wear with CoppeliaSim in a meaningful way.
Let's take a pick & place usecase as an example. How could the wear of a robot (e.g. bearing, motor) or a conveyor belt be modeled? For example, one approach would be to dynamically vary the speed of the conveyor belt because the belt might stretch.

I would like to ask you for suggestions on the topic, because you are the experts in the simulation field. Do you have any ideas on how to simulate the wear of components in CoppeliaSim?

Thank you very much in advance!
Simon

coppelia
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Posts: 10336
Joined: 14 Dec 2012, 00:25

Re: Ideas requested: How to simulate component degradation?

Post by coppelia »

Hello,

you have several ways to emulate those component degradations. The easiest and probably the most effective way would be to alter the input/output signals somewhat, e.g. adding noise, reducing amplitudes, delaying signals, etc.

For sensors you would read them from within a child script typically, modify the data, then make the modified data available via signals, or by writing them to specific object via object custom data (better scalability than with signals).

For actuators you would proceed in a similar way, by not directly applying values (e.g. a torque) to them, but filtering and modifying them beforehand.

You can also sometimes modify object properties (e.g. object rotational/angular damping, joint properties, etc.) to achieve a similar result, or apply auxiliary forces on some robot links or objects.

More complicated would be to directly modify the hierarchy of your robot, e.g. by adding auxiliary masses/joints that can be moved in order emulate play or similar.

Cheers

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