Development of a simulation model for the verification of a handling system

The thesis is based on a research work carried out in the system engineering office at SACMI. The main objective of this study is to create a model to verify a handling system. The handling system is a top-loader manipulator called "TLP", which every automatic machine for the secondary packaging is equipped with. It is a well-known manipulator with two degrees of freedom that move in a fixed frame. The developed model will be used to verify whether, for a given trajectory to be followed in a given time, the mounted motor can reach the requested torque. This model must be made using the software available in the office. Before creating the model, I analyzed the two main software that the company wants to use: Excel and Solidworks. We found that it is possible to use the Motion of Solidworks to simulate motion and extract torque characteristics. To create the correct model that I wanted to simulate, I simplified the real one, reducing the number of parts, but maintaining the same mass proprieties. This was done to avoid redundancy and unnecessary parts in the assembly. The Solidworks model requires as input the mass properties of the end effector, the path that the manipulator must follow, and the timeline of the trajectory. Firstly, the inverse dynamical problem was solved, which gave as output the angular displacements and velocities of the two motor shafts. Then, with those data, we simulated the direct dynamic and extracted the motor torques. To validate the model developed in Solidworks, I studied the dynamics of each body of the manipulator. The obtained system of equations was then implemented in Matlab and fed with the same data from the Solidworks analysis. The results were compared with the aim of understanding the limitations of the Solidworks model. Finally, both models were compared with real data gathered from a working machine.