DESIGN AND SIMULATION OF NONRIGID MATERIALS HANDLING SYSTEMS

The paper presents a software environment to model and simulate non-ri gid materials behaviour during handling operations according to their physical properties (e.g. stiffness), and to detect undesirable deform ations (e.g., material breakage). The system provides a graphical and integrated environment for modelling and graphically simulating rigid objects (e.g. robot arm, gripper) combined with flexible products (e.g . garment, meat). It consists of three main modules: a module to geome trically model the workspace and the robot composing the automated han dling system, a module to physically model and simulate the behaviour of flexible materials and finally a module for robot off-line programm ing. An approximated and descretised model has been adopted to describ e non-rigid materials in order to incorporate both its geometric and p hysical properties. To show the functionality of the system, the simul ation of an industrial operation (automated folding of a cotton sleeve ) is illustrated.