The core competence of Visomax Coating GmbH from Waldbüttelbrunn is the finishing, i.e. sanding and polishing, of painted surfaces. The company offers process solutions for this. Visomax regularly evaluates innovative and new technologies in order to simplify and optimize the surface treatment process. In 2016, Ludwig Kemmer, who is responsible for robot programming, was looking for a way to automate the polishing of imperfections on components and make it more efficient. The complexity of the application presented Kemmer with a difficult task: "Our biggest challenge is imperfections, which are located in different places on each component. This could not be solved with conventional robot programming."

Simple programming

During his research, he came across the ArtiMinds Robot Programming Suite (RPS) software from the manufacturer of the same name and was quickly won over by its simple and flexible handling and wide range of applications: "ArtiMinds makes it easy to integrate new robots into all kinds of applications. Simply select robots and additionally connected components in the RPS and you're ready to go. The integrated CAD2Path function makes it possible to create complex motion paths, for example for polishing a mudguard, quickly and precisely." To avoid having to teach in points manually, a CAD file of an object can be imported and the motion path created using the edges of the CAD model.

Andreas Götz, Managing Director at Visomax Coating, adds: "The solution offered by ArtiMinds was a perfect fit for the applications in our field. That's why we quickly decided to work together."

However, the difficulty of the application lay not only in the handling of components with different defects, but also in the integration of necessary sensor components such as a force-torque sensor and a camera system. This was because the defects first had to be localized by camera and then approached and polished out in a force-controlled manner. Such sensor-adaptive robot movements quickly present the user with a very complex programming task and any amount of effort. "To ensure that the polishing movement always has the perfect contact pressure, we work with the force module of the RPS," explains Kemmer.

With the templates and modules for individual movement sequences stored in ArtiMinds RPS, the programming effort can be significantly reduced compared to conventional programming: The camera system first passes the coordinates of the defects to the robot. The robot, including the force/torque sensor and polishing head, then takes over the actual task by approaching the defects precisely and independently.