CAD-2-SIM

Computer Aided Design To Simulation

Contact person:
Dr. rer. nat. Bertold Bongardt
The purpose of the program CAD-2-SIM is facilitating the transfer of mechanism specifications from computer aided design programs to simulation software. In particular, the program allows to export the numeric data that describe the kinematic and the dynamic properties of a mechanism without manual intervention from the CAD program to description formats of several simulation environments (Openrave, Mars, RBDL, ROS, ROCK, SimMechanics). By this direct data transformation, a faster and more stable development process is enabled. The program CAD-2-SIM uses the Sheth-Uicker convention and a graph-based enumeration scheme.
Keywords: Kinematic-Dynamic Modeling, Mechanical Synthesis, Computer Aided Design
Status: active
Operating system: Linux
Programming languages: Python
Ownership: This software was developed by the DFKI as well as by the Robotics Research Group and the University of Bremen and is being further developed under this responsibility. For questions and suggestions, please refer to the contact persons.
 

Software description

Different types of information are needed to specify (a computer model of) a mechanism.
Roughly, they can be described as follows:

(a) incidence information (combinatoric): which links and joints exit and how are they connected?
(b) posture information (geometric): how is the mechanism aligned in its zero posture?
(c) inertia information (dynamic): which masses and mass distributions do the parts of mechanism feature?
(d) surface information (graphic): how shall a mechanism be represented on screen?
(e) extension information (spatial): which boundaries shall be assumed for the links to protect from collisions?
(f) further specification (actuation): what are the joint limits, the used motors and sensors, are there elastic elements?

These kinds of information are processed by the program CAD-2-SIM to create specification of the mechanism in simulation description formats. Internally, the software uses the program Blender for handling format conversion of graphics files.

References

Application Field: Assistance- and Rehabilitation Systems
Logistics, Production and Consumer
Related Projects: Recupera REHA
Full-body exoskeleton for upper body robotic assistance (09.2014- 12.2017)
Capio
Dual-arm exoskeleton (01.2011- 12.2013)
VI-Bot
Virtual Immersion for holistic feedback control of semi-autonomous robots (01.2008- 12.2010)
Grant number: VI-Bot (Grant 01-IW-07003), Capio (Grant 01-IW-10001), and Recupera (Grant 01-IM-14006A)
© DFKI GmbH
last updated 16.11.2023
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