Robotics & Mechatronics 3: Digital Twin Machines | Unity

Install Unity and Visual Studio to begin this course; download from unity.com, run the setup, follow prompts, then install Visual Studio to write C# scripts.

Install Visual Studio 2022 community edition to support Unity development in robotics and mechatronics, then download and follow the setup steps from the Microsoft site.

Learn to set up Unity with Unity Hub, create a 3D project, navigate the scene and game views, and manage cameras, lighting, and imported CAD models for basic 3D objects.

Build a simplified Unity room using cubes for walls and floor, rename and duplicate pieces, apply blue walls and a green floor, and explore scene versus game view.

Adjust gravity in Unity by changing the gravity parameter in settings to explore realistic versus scaled gravity, and observe how object size affects fall speed; then test properties for bounce.

Create and modify c sharp scripts in Unity to drive disk rotation with physics, using start and update functions and basic object oriented scripting concepts.

Create rotating disk by replacing the capsule collider with a convex mesh collider, add a rigid body, and implement a c sharp script using quaternion and rb.moveRotation for controlled rotation.

In Unity, we duplicate and group multiple cylinders under a parent object, assign rigid bodies and physics materials, and tune friction and bounciness to achieve realistic rotation and multi-object interaction.

Model a piston in Unity by using a kinematic rigid body, extending and retracting with move towards and distance checks, controlled by target and origin positions in a script.

Learn to digitally twin a 3d conveyor belt by animating its belt, shaft, bearings, and drive motor, and enabling object interaction with gravity and barriers in unity.

Design and assemble a rotating idler pulley system by fixing pivots, adding a shaft, bearings, and pulley, and implementing a script to rotate the pulleys around the back pivot.

Explore conveyor physics in Unity by implementing a kinematic rigid body, disabling gravity, and applying a scripted speed to belt objects, with directional options like right, left, forward, and back.

Build a platform environment with cubes in Unity, adjust extruders and conveyors with angled variants to touch the ground, duplicate and rotate platforms from a top view, and color materials.

Unity demonstrates adding proximity sensors to a conveyor to read status and detect when a bottle reaches a target point, and importing a conveyor scene with existing actuators.

Count objects passing near a Unity beam with on trigger enter and on trigger exit, adjust beam size and spacing, and prepare to link sensor feedback to PLC.

Explore single axis linear guides and their digital twin for accurate end effector motion; animate them and build a mini packaging line with conveyors.

Import a cad design into a Unity project, create an assets folder, drop and scale it tenfold, rotate it -90 degrees on the x axis for the digital twin.

Integrate script, attach axis rotate to pivot, and run a Unity simulation to set speed to 100 and direction to -100, then animate carriage components: knot, cage, and nut holder.

Create on trigger enter logic in Unity to distinguish right and left sensors with tags and stop forward or backward motion accordingly, for motion limit part 3.

Implement auto orientation detection for a linear guide in Unity, mapping rotation angles to forward, backward, right, left, and up or down moves across orientation states 0–4.

Develop a digital twin mechanism in Unity by building a piston-driven end effector to push a box evenly, avoiding rotation, with a rejector, a reject shaft, and a controlling script.

Explore Cartesian robots, linear robots that move in 3D space and form the basis of pick-and-place, CNC, and 3D printers. Learn how stacked linear guides enable animation and physical interaction.

Create a y-axis pivot animation for the lead screw, motor coupler, and bearings in Unity, then attach a control script to synchronize rotation with slider speed.

Build and reposition the x axis pivot in Unity, attach bearing, leadscrew, and motor coupler, then adapt the y axis control into x control and test the x axis rotation.

Create an x axis slide to move the nut holder and carriage, then script and test sliding along x with rigidbody and collider, adjusting is trigger, gravity, and kinematic.

Run axis-by-axis and combined axis tests to spot bugs in the digital twin simulation. Use transform.position instead of translate for pivots to achieve global, stable motion.

Learn how to tune a vacuum end effector for precise pick-and-place by applying a y-axis shift for alignment, calibrating object spacing, and stacking boxes in a mini assembly line.

Debug spawners by exposing a public rotation vector and adjusting the spawned object's transform to set the rotation, ensuring new objects spawn with the correct orientation.