Copyright © 2012 S. Makris et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

The Virtual Commissioning (VC) technology is the latest trend in automotive assembly which, among other benefits, promises a more efficient handling of the complexity in assembly systems, a great reduction in the system’s ramp-up time, and a resulting shortening of the product’s time to market. This paper presents the application of VC techniques to the case of an industrial robotic cell, involving cooperating robots. The complete workflow of the virtual validation of the cell is presented, and the implementation requirements are discussed. Based on the findings, the outlook and challenges for the wide-range adoption of VC technologies in large-scale assembly systems are provided.