Cake Icing Robot
The process for robotic cake icing was broken down into four main parts. First the GUI takes user inputs, allowing the user to fully design their ideal cake design and then outputs the results in the form of an SVG file using python. Next the SVG is parsed into points that can be easily read by the Motion Planner. The Motion Planner is done using cartesian path planning and a UR5 robotic arm. Lastly this is all integrated in Gazebo to complete the above processes in simulation. The Gazebo environment is custom built to include, a table, cake, spawned icing droplets and a custom end effector. The full simulation can be seen in the video below.
GUI
Specifically, my role included three main parts. First I completely built the GUI that converted user input into a SVG file. Second, I developed the custom end effector in Solidworks that would allow this solution to work on a real UR5 so that this system can be run on a real robotic arm in the future. Lastly, I worked on integration of the entire system specifically in regards to the Gazebo world getting the motion plan to interface with not just the arm but also attaching the end effector, making sure that the icing is spawned correctly and from the right end of the end effector and getting the icing to behave correctly in space.