Development of a Robotic Structural Steel Cutting System

Curved buildings and structures are getting popular and digital fabrication of the structural steels has been successfully tried in several ways. This study presents a development of a robotic system cutting structural steels and marking texts on the steels using digital information of shapes. A configuration of the overall system is explained based on functional decomposition of conventional cutting systems. The cutting system consists of a robotic system and a handling system, and the main functions of the cutting system are classified as translation, orientation, alignment, and cutting. A digital model of the system was created and tested in a robot simulation system. A robot tool-path generation system was also developed. The tool-path generation system uses the DSTV file, an industry standard for the shape of a structural steel, to generate robot job files. This study also provides robot workspaces in which the cutting tool can safely access and cut the workpieces. The proposed system was tested for cutting structural steels clamped in front of the robot. The results show that the generated tool-paths are valid in cutting the structural steel and the possibility of an overall robotic system for cutting structural steels.