Path Planning and Control of an Industrial Robot Used for Opening Tap Hole of an Electric Arc Furnace

The electric arc furnace (EAF) is one of the popular methods of steel production from steel scraps. The plasma arc is used in EAF to generate heat for melting scarp or direct reduced iron (DRI). The liquid metal is drained from the EAF through the tap hole. Nowadays, it is critical to use Automated/robotic tools for opening the tap hole with oxygen lancing. Because many workers have been blinded by spraying molten particles in opening operation. This study was aimed to simulate a robot manipulator with five degrees of freedom designed for opening the tap hole of an electrical arc furnace. The geometrical model of the robot was designed in Solid works software according to the real workplace and its expected path and obstacles. The Newton-Euler approach was employed to derive the dynamic equations and the resultant joint torques. The dynamic model is used to obtain the operating torques of the joints as well as in the simulation using the SimMechanic toolbox in Matlab software. The results of the simulation with SimMechanic show that the control system can follow the desired path of the robot with acceptable accuracy.