communication between Robot Vision software and KR C4

    Hey I'm a student and working on a project where a camera vision system needs to send the object location coordinates to an KR C4 controller. I have no background with computer languages such as EthernetIP and C++.


    At the moment I'm using Matlab for 3D Vision and I succeed to set up Matlab as OPC-client to communicate with an OPC-server. I know this is an extra package (Kuka.OPC-server of KR C4), but maybe this is too pricey for only an object location (3 values) every ~30s. Is there another basic way to communicate between software and KRC?


    There is also a possibility where a Siemens PLC is used, is Kuka.PLC mxA package in this case enough?


    Other communication options that I found here on the forum that I'm not familiair with:
    - Kuka.EtherNet KRL (XML?)
    - Ethernet-RSI
    - Kuka Soft PLC


    Thank you for this living community.

    EthernetKRL (EKI) is also an option package for the robot. RSI and SoftPLC are not really useful for what you're trying to do.


    EKI enables simple TCP/IP port-based data transfer. Basically, open port, send string, maybe receive string, close port. Ideally, you format your "string" as an XML document, but you can also simply send comma-separated values for small data packages.


    Aside from either EKI or OPC, you have few or no options for connecting the robot to a PC, unless you add an industrial fieldbus (EtherNetIP, ProfiNet, ProfiBus, EtherCat) interface card to the PC, which is probably more expensive (and has more potential driver issues) than simply buying EKI (which is a software-only option package). The only FieldBus the KRC4 support natively without any option packages is EtherCat, but I've no idea what connecting a homebrew PC applicaiton to EtherCat would require. EKI, while not cheap, is probably the simplest and safest option.


    Unfortunately, KRC4s no longer support RS232 ports, or you could simply solve your problem that way for free.

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