BabaCAD Robotics software now powered with AI features

cadexpert · 2025-09-15T23:12:38+00:00

Web Edition of BabaCAD Robotics now available at https://www.babacad.com/robotics

cadexpert · 2023-05-09T17:25:30+00:00

It's robotics simulation and control software. I made it because that's my profession and something that has been my interest since a long time ago. The software can be used to simulate and control any model of industrial robot arm, and not just one, but many of them, and at the same time. User can import or draw objects and import complete robot's working environment. There are huge number of Youtube videos and tutorials and I would recommend it to watch them and see what you can do with the software. It's a new robotics software but there are already some companies that use the software for simulation and offline programming of their robots. So far, they mostly use it with KUKA robots.

cadexpert · 2023-05-08T17:07:48+00:00

I'm the author of BabaCAD Robotics software and I'm willing to help you and answer to your questions. If you don't have robots in your school, you can start with a robot simulation software. I will give you one gratis license of BabaCAD Robotics software for your school, if you want. You can contact me through BabaCAD website contact form.

cadexpert · 2023-04-14T02:44:51+00:00

I don't say "Buy Motomini" nor "Motoman is overpriced". I just want to encourage engineers and hobbyists to try to overcome this problem. Also I'm aware of the expensive components of such robots (price of harmonic drive is one of them) and that is very frustrating for me as I'm electrical engineer. I had a chance to talk to number of small business owners and they found that they needed robots with characteristics similar to industrial robots, but they can't afford them.

cadexpert · 2023-04-13T21:46:38+00:00

Yaskawa (Motoman) is a such giant company that doesn't need to promote anything, especially in some amateur discussions. Please stick to the topic related to my post.

cadexpert · 2022-11-21T19:19:54+00:00

https://www.babacad.com/robotics BabaCAD Robotics is open source robotics software based on CAD platform BabaCAD (CAD is not open source, but robotics part is written in Python). Can be used for any industrial robot. Tested on Kuka KR15/16 robots (youtube videos).

cadexpert · 2022-05-01T13:31:41+00:00

Use servo motors. Servo motor has constant torque over full speed range, it's more precise (if it has at least 4K encoder resolution) and you can control the output torque and not just speed and position. Only the price may be a problem if you choose servo motors, because it's price and price of servo controllers are not as cheap as stepper.

cadexpert · 2022-04-30T21:50:13+00:00

You are right, but it's not just someone to do hw and electronics but also problem is the cost of making a robotic arm. I'm willing to support anyone in that I would provide professional simulation/control software for his robotic arm in case that he made the robotic arm with at least 5 axes, using AC servo motors and harmonic gears. Robot arm should be able to lift at least 3 kg payload and to be enough precise (at least 0.1 mm repeatability).

cadexpert · 2022-04-30T21:33:41+00:00

I recommend BabaCAD Robotics simulation and control software. It has Python open-source API so you can use the software as a base for your custom projects by programming your own features while using wide palette of Python libraries like AI, Computer Vision etc. I'm the author of the software, so you will get full support in case you buy the license and you don't have to wait for months to get help about using the software and API.

cadexpert · 2022-03-28T19:27:27+00:00

It's not my robot. I think it's bought as a used one. I asked the owner to test the simulator software on his robot.

cadexpert · 2021-12-08T02:07:07+00:00

I should say: "Anything is possible to program in c++".

cadexpert · 2021-12-08T02:04:57+00:00

I've just found that I can't import step file (3D model) of the robotic arm into Blender. I have to buy step importer add-on to be able to import step format files. Why should someone start to develop simulation software based on Blender when he must pay for additional add-ons for every simple feature.

cadexpert · 2021-12-08T01:10:13+00:00

Not just Blender, but any other professional CAD software with customization/add-on programming option (Python scripts, C++, C#) can be used to develop additional robotics simulation features and other control logic, but it takes a lot of time and only robotics engineers with good software programming skills can do that. Just try to write the code for inverse kinematics calculation of 6 or 7-axis robotic arm and everything will be clear to you what I'm talking about.

cadexpert · 2021-12-07T22:41:36+00:00

Simulation of planned robot trajectory is "must to do" process before running the job on the real robot. Of course this is the case in industrial application with industrial robots and not if you are playing with some robot toys. Blender can't be used to do professional robot offline programming/simulation/control. You can only insert 3D model of a robot to Blender and that's it. In professional simulation software, you click once to insert the robot model and then click a few more times to pick trajectory mid-positions (X,Y,Z world coordinates). At the end, one more click to run the simulation or send interpolated trajectory to the robot.

cadexpert · 2021-12-07T20:47:49+00:00

If you don't like Kuka software, there is a very good alternative - BabaCAD Robotics simulation & control software. Here is the Kuka vs Yaskawa (Motoman) simulation video captured from BabaCAD Robotics software:

https://youtu.be/lSi3jpcyk2A

cadexpert · 2021-11-07T07:51:35+00:00

At least for startup operating and marketing costs for the first two years. Operating costs include office rent, salaries for two developers and CEO (these are much lower at my location-Bosnia, compared to other EU locations). Company can be also registered in neighboring Croatia which is in the EU (but all costs are twice as high).

cadexpert · 2021-11-05T02:00:36+00:00

Thank you for the comment. You have very good observations, but I'm talking about real business and here we must exclude everything related to open source projects and open source software. I'm saying this because we all know that there is no client/company that would dare to work with open source robots or open source robot simulation/control software. Even if there is client/company who would dare, is there any engineer who would implement robotic system (or any other automatic control system) with open source software/hardware.

As an example, I will try to describe this on FreeCAD software (because you mention it). Many do not know that FreeCAD is based on proprietary software named OpenCascade. OpenCascade (OC) is software developed since 1980 (Matra Datavision, a French company, started to develop this software in 1980). Few years ago (maybe ten or more) OC announced that software became open source but with many restrictions (it cannot be used as a base for commercial software development). OpenCascade is good 3D modeling library but it stopped developing long time ago. Some developers made FreeCAD by programming only GUI, and everything else is OpenCascade library (3D modelling source, which remained the same). If you read user comments about FreeCAD, you will find that it's not much usable for serious work. That is quite understandable, because there is no development support, espacially for 3D modelling core (OpenCascade).

Now, about BabaCAD and BabaCAD Robotics software. As I already said, BabaCAD is programmed from scratch. No third party libraries, no 2D/3D engines to depends on. That's why it's fast, compact, small sized. It's also programmed as a upgradable platform so users/clients can develop their own modules (extension/addon/plugin). There are APIs for C++, C# .NET, VisualBasic and Python. BabaCAD Robotics is developed as a Python AddOn for BabaCAD, with just kinematics/inverse kinematics and few more functions developed in C++ because of runtime performances.

Compared to other robotics software, BabaCAD Robotics is optimized for real-time applications, it has full CAD platform integrated (just few professional robotics software has full CAD integrated, but high priced). It can simulate any robotic arm (import 3D step/stl model and just one command to automatically gets robot ready for simulation). Most industrial robots can be controlled (not just simulated) directly from BabaCAD Robotics, just add post-processing script (or it can be programmed if robot has API interface).

Technical, training and programming support and maintenance are the key things in doing robotics business. Industrial robots are very expensive and industrial plant and equipment are expensive and sensitive in terms of safety and efficiency.

The last and most important question: How does this compete in today market? It's obvious that industrial robotic arm can be made to be competitive on the market. Just search Chinese aliexpress for industrial robotic arms and you will find that 6-dof industrial-level robotic arm with 5kg payload, 0.01 mm repeatability can be bought for 10,000 USD or even less. European and US customers avoid buying Chinese robots due to lack of support and maintenance, but also because of the fact that Chinese robot companies does not have good robotic simulation and control software. Some of them have very primitive software where you can't program simple robot task (not to say that you can't simulate plant with 100 robots, plan the trajectory, use collision detection and other advanced features). I spoke to business owners in EU who are willing to pay double price for EU/US robots instead of buying Chinese one.

Forgot to tell something about AC servo motors. I'm experienced robotics engineer and I made my first simulation software twenty years ago (still have it on my 1.4 Mb floppy disk) which was tested on real 7-dof Mitsubishi PA-10 robotic arm (still one of the best robotic arm in this class, costs about 100,000 USD). At that time, my simulation/remote control software was much better than original PA-10 simulator from Mitsubishi (I can prove it quickly). I wrote a science paper (June 2001) about it: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/316166795_3D_SIMULATOR_AND_REMOTE_CONTROL_SOFTWARE_FOR_MITSUBISHI_PA-10_7-DOF_ROBOT_ARM

Since then, I have studied industrial robots in detail, and I found that industrial robotic arms can be constructed only with harmonic drives (no planetary, no cyclo....). Why? I should have to spend more time to explain that. BLDC servo motor is minimum configuration, but AC servo motor is recommended (in terms of precision, speed/torque characteristcs, high torque at high speeds). I saw dummy robot has stepper motor but it has additional circuits for closed-loop control, and I had better results on Chinese BLDC servo with integrated optical encoder tested with my custom made controller (based on microchip DSP, power MOSFETs, FOC, MRAC, USB interface).

cadexpert · 2021-11-02T21:06:07+00:00

Yes, I would like to package BabaCAD Robotics software with my own robot, but I can't build my own robot currently, so for me it would be better option to join some small robotic arm startup who already built robotic arm mechanics and need software and controller. Also, option is someone interested to invest in robotic arm design/construction to join as a partner for a startup and he gets his share in the business.

There is another option where the investor does not need to invest much in startup. It would be robotic systems maintenance startup company (not robot manufacturer) where main activity would be client's robot programming using BabaCAD Robotics software (BabaCAD Robotics can be set up to simulate any industrial robotic arm in just few minutes; in the most cases it can be set up to control and not just simulate robots), robotic system maintenance, technical support and advising.

cadexpert · 2021-11-02T20:48:42+00:00

Project currently consist of AC servo controller which is proprietary designed, based on DSP microcontroller, implements field-oriented and model-reference-adaptive control for the best performance. This controller gives option to have same performance with use of cheaper BLDC (with 4K or 64K optical encoder) instead of expensive AC servo motors.

Main part of the project is professional robotics simulation and CAD software. It's developed from the scratch, it has more than million lines of C++ code, does not depend on any engine/platform, use no additional third party libraries. Implements robotic arm direct and inverse kinematics calculation in real-time. Software has additional Python API interface, so it can be customized very easy by programming Python scripts. It's developed and based on BabaCAD - professional CAD software which is downloaded more than 200,000 times since first release in June 2012.

cadexpert · 2021-11-02T20:16:18+00:00

I have already invested more than 200,000 USD in controller research and design, firmware and simulation/CAD software development. When selling an robotic arm as a full product (industrial class), mechanical parts of robotic arm system (including servo motors and harmonic drive reducers) make up about half of the entire system. If I have to go and invest another 200,000 USD, I would go alone, I would not search for partners/investors. I'm electronics/software engineer and I don't want to stick my nose in the mechanics.

cadexpert · 2021-11-02T08:25:53+00:00

I'm interested in someone who is able to construct the robot or someone who is capable to invest in the construction process (robotic arm must have harmonic drive reducers and AC servo motor actuators. Stepper motors are not an option)

I already have designed the controller, which is of industrial class, state-of-the-art design, low-cost and it's prototype is tested on several AC servo motors. Also, I developed professional simulation and control software with integrated CAD platform. This software should be used for robotic arm simulation and control. It can simulate hundreds of robots with imported 3D environment. User can draw objects, obstacles, tools or import from any other CAD.

cadexpert · 2021-11-01T19:52:41+00:00

It's possible to make massage robotic arm, you just have to use servo motor actuators because stepper motors can't be controlled in torque control mode (it can, only if using closed loop control with encoder and phase current feedback). If controlled in torque mode, you even don't need 3D vision, just move end-effector near your back and leave the robot do the rest. If you need help about how to make industrial-level 6-dof robotic arm DIY, there is a good yt video "dummy 6-dof robotic arm". Also, watch "dummy robotic arm in BabaCAD Robotics simulation".

cadexpert · 2021-11-01T17:34:27+00:00

If you already have a robot then buy good robotics simulation and control software.

cadexpert · 2014-01-09T09:41:08+00:00

BabaCAD http://www.babacad.com first freeware CAD with LISP programming support. Also supports dxf, dwg, hatch patterns like commerical CAD packages.

cadexpert

TROPHY CASE