As part of their project-based learning at the Mechatronics and Robotics Faculty, students of 海角社区 have come up with a non-standard method to test their development: the future engineers have used Minecraft, a popular gaming platform, for the simulation of perimeter safeguarding of a robotic cell.
The team had quite a serious task, to design and visualize the work of perimeter safeguarding for industrial robots. Such systems are important for safe operation: they must automatically stop the robot if a human approaches it, in order to prevent injuries.
The existing specialized software for visualization of a robots’ work did not allow to adequately simulate the behaviour of the safety systems. So, the students found a non-standard and accessible solution: they transferred their development to the Minecraft world.
A full-fledged robotic cell with perimeter safeguarding was created in the virtual world. Depending on the distance to a human being, the robot changes its operation mode: if the human approaches it, it slows down; and if a human crosses the critical line, the robot stops completely – all like in a real-world production, only in cubes.
The students’ original idea in details represents the real industrial safety requirements and demonstrates how a robotic system must behave in production.