Wade: An Object-Oriented Environment for Modeling and Simulation of Workcell Applications

Abstract

This paper provides an informal characterization of the process of workcell application design and describes the architecture and implementation of a software environment called WADE intended to aid a designer of workcell applications. WADE embodies a reasonably general approach for modeling a wide range of industrial equipment, programming them in as powerful a manner as their control languages, simulating workcell applications with multiple programmable and nonprogrammable equipment, and analyzing the performance in flexible ways. Its design is object-oriented and open-ended, suitable for easy experimentation, extension, and refinement. The implementation is based on a modern language called AML/X with object-oriented programming capabilities and a powerful and production quality solid modeling system called GDP. We will illustrate the functionality of WADE with two example applications and conclude with a brief discussion of our experiences in designing and building WADE and some issues for consideration in future work. © 1989 IEEE