Traditionally, CNC milling has required a bulky machine tool. To cut advanced toolpaths beyond simple three-axis cutting in x, y and z, machine tools require additional features like rotating tables and spindles that can articulate in multiple axes. However, there is a growing group of six-axis robot users who use their robot to cut toolpaths using a milling head end effector. While most robots cannot match the torque and rigidity of a full-size machine tool, they do have capability for some milling applications, at a much lower cost—most industrial robots cost in the mid five figures, while CNC machining centers can cost ten or even a hundred times more.
However, importing a CAM toolpath to serve as the path program of the robot is a non-trivial task. For users of Mastercam, a new plugin for the robot simulation and offline programming software RoboDK is designed to make it easier to send CAM files to RoboDK.
According to the company, The RoboDK toolbar in Mastercam includes 4 buttons:
1. Robot setup — This gives you various options for setting up your robot project. You can use it to create an empty project, load an existing one, send parts to RoboDK, or create a project with a default robot and tool.
2. Update selected operations — This allows you to send machining operations from Mastercam to RoboDK. You can then switch to the RoboDK window to edit the program, run the simulation, and generate a robot program.
3. Generate selected robot program — This button means that you don’t have to open the RoboDK window at all. You can access RoboDK’s functionality from right inside Mastercam. It will generate the robot program and only open RoboDK if there are issues.
4. RoboDK Settings — This allows you to customize the plugin by setting the units (inch or metric), selecting the export format, and choosing how RoboDK is displayed and run.
RoboDK is somewhat unique in the robotic simulation space because the company offers a free trial version of the software with a good level of functionality. The company has recently announced a few other plugins as well. The Solidworks plugin makes it easier to import CAD models from Solidworks to the RoboDK environment. Click here to read our article on that plugin. A RoboDK plugin for Rhino allows you to combine Rhino’s parametric modeling with RoboDK for robot simulation and offline programming.
For another approach to robotic CNC milling, check out this video tutorial from Karl Singline, using a KUKA robot and the software tools Grasshopper and KUKA.PRC.