Cell Editor - Collision Groups

Navigation

1. Open a cell in the Cell Editor.

2. In the Cell tree, select the Cell.

   

3. In Cell settings on the right, go to the Collision setting section.

   

Collision group pairs

Each item in the list is a collision group pair (commonly just called a “collision group”). Collision groups are used to differentiate collisions by type. For example, “Robot-to-Cell” may be one collision group and “Robot-to-Part” might be another. This gives you the ability to set up and color code these types of collisions separately.

A cell may contain any number of collision groups.

Add

Adds a new collision group to the list.

Edit

Opens the Collision Group Pair Settings panel to edit the collision group.

Delete

Removes the collision group from the list.

Enable / Disable

Makes the collision group active or inactive in the cell. Disabled collision groups will also be disabled by default in a part programming session when the device is loaded.

Collision Group Pair settings

Name

Enter a descriptive name for the collision group pair. This name will also appear in the part programming session.

Type

Set a type for the collision group, collision or interference.

• Collision
  The Collision type is used to model physical collisions between objects. This type is normally used for any objects in the cell that you want to cause a collision, including robot joints, cell components like tables and fences, external rails and rotaries, as well as other objects such as workpieces, fixtures, and toolings. Collisions are visually obvious in many areas of Robotmaster, including the viewport, point list, scheduler, Operations panel on the device side, operation settings, and in Optimization maps. In Robotmaster options, you can set whether to stop the simulation at collisions and whether to show a warning when trying to generating robot code for a program with collisions.

• Interference
  The Interference type is used to indicate to the programmer that physical objects may be too close to one another, as with a “near miss” situation. Interference can be thought of as a warning and is typically used for collision group pairs that have safety envelopes in them. Interferences are visible in the viewport and scheduler. In Robotmaster options, you can set whether to stop the simulation at interferences.

Color

Set an A value (opacity) and RGB color for the collision group. Color can be used to visually differentiate collision groups in part programming sessions. For example, you might use red for a Robot-to-Cell collision group and a different color for a Robot-to-Robot collision group.

Pairs

The two boxes in the Pairs section control which elements are evaluated for collisions in a given group.

During collision detection in Robotmaster, if any object in the left Pairs box touches any object in the right Pairs box, a collision will occur.

You can add elements from the Available geometries section to a left or right box in the Pairs section by clicking and dragging it.

Available geometries

Cell

This encompasses every object in the cell tree. Drag the entire cell into one of the Pairs boxes to add every component in it. Alternatively, you can expand the cell node and select and drag individual items in the cell to add them one-by-one. Individual cell items include:

• Joints

• Safety envelopes

• Cell components such as tables, enclosures, and floors

• Rails

• Rotaries

• Miscellaneous elements included in the CAD model of the cell

For multi-robot cells, each robot is listed under the Cell node and contains its own set of items such as joints, components, and so on.

These robots can be selected independently for collision group pairs. You can build robot-to-robot collision groups in this way.

Placeholders

Placeholders are things that are not included in the cell tree, they are loaded during a part programming session. This includes toolings, tools, workpieces, fixtures, and stocks. These items can be added separately to collision pairs.

• Toolings
  Whichever tooling is used in part programming session will be used for collision detection. This might be the default tooling specified for the robot or a different tooling loaded during the session.

• Tools
  An entire tool may be added, or you can expand the Tools node to select Arbors, Holders, and Flutes individually. For example, for a milling operation, you might want the arbor and holder of the tool to cause a collision if either touches the workpiece, but want to allow the flute of the tool to touch the workpiece without causing a collision.

• Workpieces
  This includes any CAD element that is classified as a workpiece in a part programming session.

• Fixtures
  This includes any CAD element that is classified as a fixture in a part programming session.

• Stocks
  This includes any CAD element that is classified as stock in a part programming session. Stock can be further refined by either Initial static stock or For material removal. The material removal option can be used as part of the Material Removal module.