Is it possible to do CNC work such as cutting out parts on plywood sheets with a robot arm?

Google plywood router robot to see a few examples. The Maslow machine looks cool.

Hi,

Is it possible to do CNC work such as cutting out parts on plywood sheets with a robot arm?

Yes, very much so but Mach does not have kinematics and so cannot be used for robotic arms.

Craig

As Craig has said, Mach does not support kinematics so you could not use conventional CAD/CAM software to program a robotic arms movement – however, many robot arms used in industry are programmed by the ‘teach’ method where the arm is jogged to the positions required (one at a time) and each position is saved as a string of movements.
Mach does support a ‘teach’ feature where each position jogged (by X,Y,Z,A,B,C axes) is saved as Gcode which can then be run (as a Gcode file) to exactly reproduce the movement of all positions previously taught. Obviously some planning is required during the ‘teach’ process to avoid collisions etc. as the arm would take the shortest route to the next position in the sequence when running the Gcode file.

Could be fun.

Tweakie.

Thanks, guys. I suspected that would be a problem, just didn't know the word, "kinematics". I understand how easy it would be to merely record the positions and then write a routine manually. And that would be fine for moving objects, positioning things, but I was wondering whether or not I could cut foam tool mats, that sort of thing. I think you've answered my question, and the answer is 'no'.

Hi,
in Mach the Gcode describes the position and movement of the controlled point. Thus a move like:

g0 x100 y100 z100

will cause the machine to move in a linearly interpolated fashion to 100,100,100. Mach will produce numeric data to the motion controller in millisecond time
slices, and the motion controller will generate three pulse streams, one to each of the X, Y and Z motors.


But what happens if you don't have separate X,Y and Z motors? Say a robot arm will usually have a rotating joint at the bottom followed by two 'elbow' joints,
followed by another rotating joint. So how would Mach deal with that?. It just produces numeric data describing where the controlled point should be, it does not
know how to calculate how to get there with so many complex joints and the ranges of movement. That's where you need a motion control that can calculate on the fly
how to move the individual joints but in coordinated fashion that the controlled point moves  the required path, that's called kinematics.

In Machs case you might say that it has kinematics of a particular type, 'Cartesian Kinematics', but it does not have kinematics to do robot arms.

Mach3 will never do that, all development ceased seven years ago, it is what it is now forever. Could Mach4 end up with kinematics (other than Cartesian)?
I suppose its possible but I rather doubt it.

Craig

But if you want to do that sort of work and in large sizes but don't want a BIG router then the Maslow approach looks pretty viable and probably cheaper than a robot arm.  Its triangular kinematics are straightforward and within the scope of an Arduino.

Something about the Maslow... It's just so clunky looking. Not cool.