Difference btw Autostop (AS) & General Stop(GS) of safety board

[robots_at_apex]

if I have a robot cell with 1 access safety interlock gate to get in . if I want to set up the system so that I can teach the robot inside the cell with the gate opened, does it mean I have to drop AS but keep GS on. Can anyone confirm this? I think when e-stop is pressed AS and GS go off? Is this true?

Thanks in advance....

[Nation]

That is correct. You need to drop the AS chains only if you want to teach with the fence open.

In regards to an external estop, it should be tied to the ES chains, as AS and GS stop the robot smoothly, and ES stop it as fast as possible.

[robots_at_apex]

Thanks Nation for info. 

Is it good practise then: Upon an estop being pressed to drop ES,AS and GS chains? Or can GS chains always be left on? Does AS chains have to be dropped on an estop pressed?

many thanks in advance......

[Nation]

Generally, there is no reason to drop out the other chains when an e stop is pressed. The ES chain dropping out will stop the robot as fast as possible (depending on mode, more on this below).

Here is a description of the chain hirarcy:

• ES : E Stop, stops the robot as fast as possible in manual mode, if the SoftES parameter under Safety Run Chain in the topic Controller is set to TRUE, it will stop softer in auto mode. Does not allow the robot to move while broken.
• SS : Superior Stop, stops the robot as fast as possible. If the SoftSS parameter under Safety Run Chain in the topic Controller is set to TRUE, it will stop softer. Hard on the robot, does not allow the robot to move while broken.
• GS : General Stop, stops the robot as fast as possible. If the SoftGS parameter under Safety Run Chain in the topic Controller is set to TRUE, it will stop softer. Does not allow the robot to move while broken.
• AS : Auto Stop, stops the robot as fast as possible. If the SoftAS parameter under Safety Run Chain in the topic Controller is set to TRUE, it will stop softer. Allows the robot to move around in teach while broken.

If the cell is a one robot cell, the only chains that need to be wired up are the AS chains and the ES chains, assuming there is an e stop on the cell that is not on the robot controller itself. The AS chain should be tied to the fence circuit.

The GS chain is used to inhibit another robot (or robots) when there are multiple robots in the same cell. Put one robot into teach, it drops out the GS chains for all the other robots. This is to prevent more than one person teaching at the same time. Alternatively, if you want to be able to teach multiple robots in a cell at the same time, you would setup the GS circuit to drop out to every robot in teach mode when a deadman on one or more robots was released.