Matlab Simscape Multibody model based simulation for mechatronic systems: Comau AGILE 1500 Lifter design validation

MATLAB Simscape Multibody model based simulation for mechatronic systems: Comau AGILE 1500 Lifter design validation; Academic supervisor: Prof. Massimo Violante; Candidate: Andrea Giacotto; Abstract: This thesis project is born from a collaboration among Comau and MathWorks. Comau’s objective is to adopt a new tool, provided by MathWorks, able to cover the following tasks: design and modelling, simulation, pre-validation. The first expected result is to cut down the costs of the modelling and testing phase. More generally, the goals of this project are the following ones: • To help the operator in the correct sizing of the mechanical and electrical components of each product. • To give information on the reliability of the overall product with dynamic simulations, reducing test times on real prototypes. • To avoid errors during development process. • To reduce costs due to errors. Comau would like to verify how much promising can be the introduction of these tools into the design and development process. To do that, the first simulation used to test the new tools is done on an already finished product, the Lifter 500. In this way, the tests results obtained by the model can be compared with the data obtained by the real system, to verify that the model is able to correctly represent it. The main steps of the project were to create the model of the Lifter 500 on MATLAB Simscape Multibody, to simulate and to validate the model, and finally to perform a cost-benefit analysis. At the end of the project it is been verified that Simscape Multibody is able to correctly simulate the real system, and that this tool can be really useful for Comau during the development process. Moreover, the cost-benefit analysis results showed that the total investment to adopt this new tool can be paid back already during the second year from its introduction.