Integrated Design of a Robotic Cell for Lasts Roughing.

A computer simulation based methodology was elaborated for the integrated design and development of a footwear lasts roughing robotic cell, developed by DIMeC (University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Italy) researchers and the design engineers of SIR S.P.A., an italian robot system integrator market-leader. The integration of different design and simulation software tools leads to a time and cost-saving procedure to be used in the design of high-performance robotic manufacturing cells, with increased machining quality, flexibility, low set-up time and ease of re-configurability. A Concurrent Engineering approach was followed throughout all the stages of the robotic cell development, while behavioral simulation and off-line programming performed on the definitive model allowed to close the Computer Integrated design process loop.