Digital Casting System

Digital Casting System (DCS) is a Innosuisse project as well as a new novel approach for robotic casting system. it serves part of Scaling up in Digital Casting of Concrete. This package works to transition automated digital casting systems from the laboratory to the industry scale by overcoming the challenges addressed by inline mixing. DCS involves identifying optimal values for comprehensive system parameters, including processing and material characteristics, while carefully considering specific system requirements.

This package has three parts, which contain PLC controller for control components, DCS library for middleware, robotic control, and data handling; lastly, DCS application uses for real-time data recording and production simulation.

Requirements

Operating System and Software.

• Windows 10* or Ubuntu 22.04*
• TwinCAT 3 -- version 3.4
• Docker -- version

CAD/CAM software and simulation.

• ABB RobotStudio -- version 2023/2024
• Rhino and Grasshopper -- version 7

Usage

For further a tutorial, examples, and an API reference, please check out the online documentation HERE: digtial_casting doc

Data visualization and real-time monitoring app Please find the app HERE.

Real-time monitoring and data recording

Use the package from Git

# sync the library
uv sync

# run the main script (requires PLC hardware)
uv run scripts/main.py

PLC Controller

Please find more information HERE under Connect with TwinCAT section.

Robotic control

Real ABB robotic control

With robot support:

pip install digital-casting-system[robot] git+https://github.com/WeiTing1991/compas_rrc.git@main

# clean the stopped container
docker container prune

# compose up and connect with docker container
# Linux/WSL
docker-compose -f ./external_controllers/robot/docker_compas_rrc/real_controller/docker-compose.yml up

# windows
docker-compose -f .\external_controllers\robot\docker_compas_rrc\real_controller\docker-compose.yml up

uv run scripts/main_run_robot.py

Simulation with ABB robot(with virtual controller)

docker
# clean the stopped container
docker container prune
# docker compose up

# Linux/WSL
docker-compose -f ./external_controllers/robot/docker_compas_rrc/real_controller/docker-compose.yml up

# windows
docker-compose -f .\external_controllers\robot\docker_compas_rrc\virtual_controller\docker-compose.yml up

ABB RobotStudios Setup

Please find more information here

CAD/CAM software(Rhino and grasshopper)

Please find more information here

Concrete Controller

The sub-package external_controllers is a package that provides a set of driver to control the concrete casting machines. More information can be found in digital casting system controller

Development

Clone the repository

git clone https://github.com/USI-FMAA/digital_casting_system.git
# Alternately
git clone --recurse-submodules https://github.com/USI-FMAA/digital_casting_system.git

# if the repository is already cloned
cd digital_casting_system
git submodule update --init --recursive

Update the submodules

# Update the submoudles
git submodule update --remote --merge
git pull --recurse-submodules


# Alternately
git submodule init
cd external_controllers
git checkout master # checkout the lastest version
git pull

# Alternately way
git submodule foreach git pull origin master

Setup the environment

With UV package manger (super fast package management build by rust)

Install UV

# On macOS and Linux.
curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh

# On Windows.
powershell -ExecutionPolicy ByPass -c "irm https://astral.sh/uv/install.ps1 | iex"

uv --version

Create virtual environment

UV

uv venv --python 3.12
source .venv/bin/activate
uv pip install -e .
uv pip install -e '.[dev,doc]'

# optional
uv pip install '.[dev]' # install the development dependencies
uv pip install '.[docs]' # install the documentation dependencies

Alternately with Anaconda package manager

# Create the environment and activate it
conda create --prefix ./.env python=3.10

# Install dependencies
conda activate ./.env
pip install -r requirements.txt

# Install Compas framework
pip install compas
pip install git+git://github.com/WeiTing1991/compas_rrc.git@main

Credits

Author: Wei-Ting Chen

This package created by WeiTing Chen at USI-FMAA and ETHZurich DFab