🎨 Multirobot Control System for Automated Part Painting

Distributed multi-robot painting line with real-time monitoring

A unified precision-painting platform that coordinates two collaborative painting arms, one industrial pick-and-place robot, and a conveyor line under a single automated cycle — combining PLC-grade industrial reliability with a MATLAB-based supervisory layer.

---

📖 Overview

This repository contains the engineering work, control software, simulation models, and design documentation for a distributed multirobot control system with real-time monitoring for an automated industrial painting line, developed as a graduation (diploma) project at the Kazakh-British Technical University (KBTU).

The system automates the full technological cycle of part finishing — workpiece transport → simultaneous spray painting → drying → pick-and-place handling — and synchronizes three heterogeneous robots and a conveyor within one production cycle. The process is modeled on a real automotive painting line at Hyundai Trans Kazakhstan and realized at laboratory scale, while the software is built to industrial standards for future scale-up.

The core engineering idea is a hybrid PLC + MATLAB architecture: the Siemens S7-1500 PLC handles deterministic sequencing, safety interlocks, and field-device I/O, while a MATLAB supervisory layer handles high-level trajectory generation, multi-robot coordination, and real-time telemetry.

📄 This work is based on the graduation thesis "Development of a multirobot control system for painting parts with real-time monitoring" (KBTU, 2026). Read the full thesis (PDF) and the presentation slides (PDF).

---

📹 Demo

▶️ Watch the full system in action on YouTube · 🖥️ Presentation slides (PDF)

---

✨ Highlights

• 🤖 Three coordinated robots — two Waveshare RoArm-M2-S spray arms + one KUKA KR10 R1100-2 industrial pick-and-place robot.
• 🏭 Industrial PLC backbone — Siemens SIMATIC S7-1500 (S7-1513F-1 PN) programmed in TIA Portal V19, with a WinCC HMI for real-time visualization and operator control.
• 🔗 Multi-protocol communication — PROFINET at field level, OPC UA (50 ms) for PLC↔MATLAB supervision, TCP/IP (KukaVarProxy) for the KUKA, and HTTP/JSON over Wi-Fi for the painting arms.
• ⚙️ Closed-loop conveyor — a BLDC-driven conveyor belt with PLC PID speed control holds a constant takt for synchronized painting.
• 🛠️ Built & validated — realized as a 1:1 laboratory cell and validated end-to-end (KUKA + 2× RoArm + conveyor + S7-1500 + SCADA).
• 💰 Proven business case — ≈ 45 % lower labor cost, ≈ 6.08 M KZT annual economic effect, and a 2.2-year payback.

---

🏗️ System Architecture

The platform follows a three-tier, fully network-based architecture that decouples the supervisory host from device-level implementations, so hardware can be reconfigured without rewriting control logic.

Tier	Responsibility	Components
Level 2 — Supervisory	High-level control, coordination, monitoring, operator UI	MATLAB/Simulink · WinCC SCADA · TP700 Comfort HMI
Level 1 — Basic control	Deterministic sequencing, safety, device control	SIMATIC S7-1500 PLC · KUKA KR C4 · ESP32 (RoArm)
Level 0 — Physical process	Sensing & actuation	4× inductive sensors · 57BLF01 conveyor drive · fan · KUKA · 2× RoArm

MATLAB exchanges a safety handshake with the PLC over OPC UA (zone-clear flag, E-stop circuits, supply-pressure check) before releasing any robot motion.

Process cycle

A workpiece moves through three stations — the conveyor carries it to the painting station (two arms spray simultaneously), then to the drying station (fan arch), then to the pick-and-place station where the KUKA unloads it to the output platform.

Workpiece positioning at every stage is governed by inductive proximity sensors, and every stage transition is gated by a PLC safety interlock before the MATLAB layer releases the next robot motion.

---

🔧 Hardware

Subsystem	Component	Model / Part No.	Key spec
Pick-and-place robot	KUKA Agilus	KR10 R1100-2 / SEL	6-DOF, 10 kg payload, ±0.02 mm, 1101 mm reach
Painting manipulators (×2)	Waveshare	RoArm-M2-S	4-DOF, ESP32, 0.5 kg payload, ~500 mm reach
Controller	SIMATIC S7-1500	CPU 1513F-1 PN (6ES7 513-1FL02-0AB0)	fail-safe, PROFINET IRT, OPC UA server
I/O modules	SIMATIC	DI 6ES7521-1BL00 · DQ 6ES7522-1BL01 · AI 6ES7531-7KF00	32 DI / 32 DQ / 8 AI
Operator panel	SIMATIC HMI	TP700 Comfort (6AV2124-0GC01-0AX0)	7″ touch, WinCC
Conveyor drive	BLDC motor + driver	57BLF01 + BLDC-8015A	24 V, 3000 RPM, 63 W, 0.2 Nm
Position sensing	Inductive proximity (×4)	Siemens 3RG40 22-3JB00	4 mm, IP67, PROFINET
End-effector	Electromagnetic gripper	280 kg holding	switched via $OUT[25]

📋 Full bill of materials with prices is in the economic analysis.

---

💻 Software Stack

Layer	Tooling
Supervisory control	MATLAB R2025b (Instrument Control Toolbox, Robotics System Toolbox)
Process dispatch & kinematics	Simulink (OPC UA sensor states → launch painting / pick-and-place)
PLC / SCADA / HMI	Siemens TIA Portal V19 + WinCC Runtime Advanced
KUKA middleware	KukaVarProxy (open-source) over TCP/IP, port 7000
RoArm firmware	ESP32 HTTP/JSON server (Waveshare stock firmware)
Mechanical design	AutoCAD (2D), STEP / Fusion 360 (3D)

---

📁 Repository Structure

multirobot_painting_control_system/
├── MATLAB/
│   ├── KUKA_control/        # KUKA KR10 pick-and-place: GUI, trajectory gen, kinematics/dynamics library
│   ├── Roarm_control/       # RoArm-M2-S painting: OOP control classes, dual-arm painting app
│   └── README.md
├── PLC/
│   ├── PLC_SCADA_HMI/       # Siemens TIA Portal V19 project (S7-1500 + WinCC HMI)
│   ├── PLC_SCADA_HMI.zap19  # portable project archive (open via Project → Retrieve)
│   └── README.md
├── Simulink/
│   ├── MultiRobotPaintingModel_fixed.slx   # supervisory model: OPC UA sensor states → launch painting / pick-and-place
│   └── README.md
├── CAD/
│   ├── 3D_model/            # STEP models (industrial + laboratory cells)
│   ├── autocad_drawings/    # 2D engineering drawings (PDF)
│   └── README.md
├── docs/
│   └── images/              # renders, screenshots, diagrams
├── LICENSE                  # MIT
├── CITATION.cff             # how to cite this work
└── README.md                # you are here

Each subsystem folder has its own README with detailed setup and usage instructions.

Subsystem	What's inside	Docs
🦾 KUKA control	Pick-and-place GUI, quintic-smoothstep trajectory generation, 6-DOF FK/IK/ID library, Simulink simulation	MATLAB/KUKA_control
🖌️ RoArm control	OOP motion-control classes (serial + Wi-Fi), dual-arm painting application, telemetry GUI	MATLAB/Roarm_control
🏭 PLC / SCADA / HMI	S7-1500 sequencing logic, conveyor PID, WinCC operator panel	PLC
📊 Simulink	Supervisory dispatch model — OPC UA sensor states launch the painting / pick-and-place processes; robot kinematics	Simulink
📐 CAD	3D STEP assemblies and 2D AutoCAD drawings	CAD

---

📈 Results

Economic impact

Metric	Value
Total capital expenditure	≈ 46.5 M KZT (≈ $50,874 BOM)
Annual labor-cost reduction	≈ 44.8 % (10 → 4 operators)
Total annual savings	≈ 20.96 M KZT
Annual economic effect	≈ 6.08 M KZT
Payback period	2.2 years

---

🚀 Getting Started

Each subsystem is independent — start with the one you need. Full prerequisites and step-by-step instructions live in each subsystem README.

1. KUKA pick-and-place — run the MATLAB GUI kuka_pick_and_place_gui_magnetic, design Home/Pick/Place poses, preview the trajectory, then execute on the robot via KukaVarProxy. → guide
2. RoArm painting — launch roarms_painting_process to control both arms over Wi-Fi, or use the RoarmM2_MotionControl_* classes programmatically. → guide
3. PLC / HMI — open PLC/PLC_SCADA_HMI.zap19 in TIA Portal V19 (Project → Retrieve). → guide
4. Simulation — open Simulink/MultiRobotPaintingModel_fixed.slx to explore the conveyor control model. → guide

---

📷 Gallery

KUKA pick-and-place GUI	RoArm dual-arm painting GUI
Pose editor, 3D preview, live joint telemetry, abort control	Dual-arm workspace preview, path planning, telemetry

WinCC HMI control panel	Simulink supervisory model
Conveyor, fans, robots, PID & error status	OPC UA inputs → supervisor → robot dispatch

Laboratory cell (render)	Industrial cell (render)

---

👥 Authors

Graduation project — Kazakh-British Technical University (KBTU), School of Information Technology and Engineering, educational program 6B07103 "Automation and Control", 2026.

• Almat Abdimalik
• Rassul Zeinulla
• Collins Masimba
• Ayan Rakhmetkali

Supervisor: Associate Professor, PhD T. I. Samigulin

---

📝 Citation

If you reference this work, please cite it using the metadata in CITATION.cff, or:

A. Abdimalik, R. Zeinulla, C. Masimba, and A. Rakhmetkali, "Development of a multirobot control system for painting parts with real-time monitoring," Graduation Project, Kazakh-British Technical University, Almaty, 2026.

---

📄 License

This project is released under the MIT License — see LICENSE for details.