irVision Setup / Fanuc manual

I have a fanuc M-430iA with a Fanuc R-30iA controller and a sony xc-56.
I'm trying to set up a vision system where the robot picks up wooden blocks (with different letters on it) from a conveyer belt and puts them into a specific order to form a name.
To test some basic things I thought I'd test the process without the belt moving to make sure the camera can find the blocks and that the robot gets the correct locations and can pick them up.

I've found a iRvision manual and these are the steps I've done:
• Setup a camera (on internet explorer)
• Setup a line (on internet explorer)
• Performed visual tracking Grid calibration (on internet explorer)
• Attached a pointer to the end gripper and set up a tool frame (on the controller)
• Performed 4 point Grid calibration to setup a user frame (on the controller) --> User frame 6
• Created a vision system and masked one of the letters. --> 'LETTERS', when I press snap&find the block is detected at all times.
• Created a program
• Set a reference point (on internet explorer) and then moved the robot to this posisition for P[2]

The program looks like this:

UTOOL_NUM=1
UFRAME_NUM=6
J P[3] 100% FINE <-- random point 'home position'
CALL GRIP_OPEN
LBL[99]
VISION RUN_FIND 'LETTERS'
VISION GET_OFFSET 'LETTERS' VR[2] JMP LBL[99]
J P[1] 30% FINE VOFFSET, VR[2] <-- point above the block
L P[2] 40mm/sec FINE VOFFSET, VR[2] <-- Grip position
CALL GRIP_CLOSE

What happens is:
When I don't move the wooden block, the robot will run trough the program and perfectly go to the same point and pick up the block.
So the letter is being recognised etc.

However, when I rotate the block the robot will go to a completely different position, or can't even reach the position (error).
And sometimes when I move the block linear (for example in the x-direction) the robot will move in the other direction (y-direction) withouth logic.

Does anyone have a clue what the problem can be, or that there is a proper manual apart from the iRvision manual?

Thanks in advance!

Quote from scotty

Just curious, when you did calibration of tracking frame did you put +X direction towards conveyor move?
I'm doing usually next steps:

• enable encoder


• set up gripper


• set up robot (create conveyor, fixture/etc)


• go to conveyor tab, set up Tracking Frame (place calibration grid with +X towards the conveyor move, calibrate camera, then move conveyor and create robot frame)


• go to conveyor tab, create upstream and dowanstream beams


• later depends what is your placement (conveyor/tray/etc) do the rest


• when you done with vision tracking camera program, after creating reference don't move part, jog conveyor with par to be in robot pick zone . move robot to pick the part position and do touch-up. Depends what type of tracking you are using you need to select correct program. In my case I go to PK_CV_PICK11, and do touch-up on PR[57: Cv Ref Pos]. It will ask you 'do you want to exclude VR[1], press F5.

I usually run original conveyor tracking program that supplied with conveyor tracking package to check that my conveyor tracking calibration and set up are working in a way that I want.

Display More

Since I didn't use the conveyor for the testing purpose, I used a line that was already put in by the (previous) owner of the robot.
The block doesn't move but the robot picks up the block from underneath the camera.
So for that reason I didn't set a tracking frame, up/down streams etc., but used the one that was already set.
My thought was that if the conveyor doesn't move, the encoder won't 'change' and the robot should pick up the part.
For normal calibration, I put the x-direction to the positive x-direction of the robot which is perpendicular to the conveyor 'line'.
Could that be the problem?
And from where did you get all the information you needed? Do you, by any chance, have a proper manual?
Thanks for your response !

Quote from stare284

Seeing as you are not using the conveyor yet you may have the calibration setup incorrectly.

Verify you used the correct value for the grid calibration sheet you used for setting up the camera calibration.

Example: Using the 30mm grid with the calibration set at 5mm will result in the robot trying to move at an incorrect distance than needed.

I used a 22 mm grid, and that's also what I used in the setup.
Thanks for your response!

Oh and when i rotate the block 90 degrees:
What I mean with a completely different direction, the robot will move more then half a meter the other way.

Quote from andreic

Hello,
So some thoughts about your problem:
1. If you don't use tracking, take it out (do a normal calibration - Grid Pattern Calib.)
2. After calibration I would make 2D Single View Vision Process to test the system. Teach a circle on a grid and do tests.
3. What type of vision process are you using? If you are not using tracking use a simple 2D Single-View Vision Process. Make sure Offset Frame is correct. It can be your calibration grid uframe, for example.
4. Check if proper tool is used.

Display More

I've tried to do the grid pattern calibration, however the only tool that I can choose is the : camera calib. for vis. tracking
Same counts for the vision process, the only one I can choose is the: Single-view visual tracking.
Am I missing a setting somewhere?
Thanks for the response!

Quote from scotty

You are not missing se-up. When you have conveyor tracking system, you are not able to use regular single-view visual tracking. Unless you have camera set-up as regular iRVision 2D. Send me a pm with you email, i will send you conveyor tracking manuals.

That explains alot and that would be great!
I've send you my email in a pm.

Quote from I3ooI3oo

Personally I have had that issue many times when using GET_OFFSET, I prefer to use POS_FOUND and just move there. I also make sure my userframe and my camera calibration are exactly the same. I think the problem is it is offsetting the tool frame not the userframe.

Thanks for your reply! I will try using POS_FOUND first thing monday.

Quote from I3ooI3oo

Personally I have had that issue many times when using GET_OFFSET, I prefer to use POS_FOUND and just move there. I also make sure my userframe and my camera calibration are exactly the same. I think the problem is it is offsetting the tool frame not the userframe.

I didn't get it to work yet, how can i use POS_FOUND? I cleared the found positions in VR[1]
This is what i thought:

VISION RUN_FIND 'EXAMPLE'
VISION GET_OFFSET 'EXAMPLE' VR[1] JMP LBL[99]
PR[7]=VR[1].FOUND_POS[1]
J PR[7] 50% FINE

Is this the right way? because I can't get it to work.