Energid Technologies Corporation, a company that provides robotic systems and products for the aerospace, agriculture, transportation, manufacturing, defense and medical industries, recently announced that its Actin software will be used with robotic systems being developed by AREVA Corporation for the servicing and inspection of nuclear power plants.
Actin coordinates motion of the joints and base for one or more robots. A developer simply gives the desired tool motion through a simple language, and Actin produces real-time algorithms for setting motor positions and rates.
Actin works with almost any joint type or tool type and with an unlimited number of degrees of freedom and branching connections.
“AREVA chose Actin for its advanced control capabilities, its ability to reason about 3D environments, and the fact that it is robot agnostic," said Don Bigler, senior software engineer at AREVA. "At AREVA we use custom robots as well as off-the-shelf systems. We need software that can work with all of these seamlessly."
Actin also provides powerful simulation using either automatic built-in control or a user’s own control. Actin can import models from CAD formats and includes a plug-in for SolidWorks. Physics properties can be captured from CAD models or set separately and used for high-fidelity physics-based analysis. Through rich modeling and analysis techniques, Actin saves designers time and effort by finding and resolving problems at the earliest stages.
Actin can also assess the applicability of a robot to a new problem or environment.
"Actin's powerful engine allows us to simulate and control complex mechanisms easily," said Bill Glass, chief technical advisor at AREVA NDE Solutions. "It enables our engineers to develop creative solutions not before possible, which ultimately leads to better value to our customers."
"AREVA is the global leader in nuclear energy," said Neil Tardella, COO at Energid. "It is an honor to contribute to their passion for bringing cleaner, safer and more economical energy to the world."
Edited by Braden Becker