CAD-Based Automatic Generation of Robot Trajectory in Shoe Spray Systems

Automatic generation of robot trajectory for adhesive spray is highly desirable for shoe manufacturing. However, nowadays robotic trajectories are programmed by teach-in instead of automatic approaches. To cope with it, an approach based on a programming tool will be described. It aims at enabling the automatic generation of robot spray trajectories from different kinds of shoe sole models in three-dimensional CAD files. Trajectory could be generated as an offset curve on the surface patch of shoe sole. A set of operating points in spray trajectory can be calculated by means of linear interpolation. At the same time, their orientations including tangential directions and normal directions are computed. Results show that this approach is highly time-efficient by avoiding tedious teaching processes. This study will increase the automation level of the shoe production as well as its flexibility, and is therefore expected to provide higher productivity.