hi,
I know this gets asked a lot, I need to set up: 2 robots, 2 external axes (driven by mu100, mu200).
After a lot of reading I found the arc welding example and the external axes wizard (and created a moc.cfg)
Is there any more complete example for this? Most stuff i found references robot studio 5 and external axis cfgs that apparently no longer exist. Much appreciated
2 robots, 2 external axes
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ka sc -
May 27, 2019 at 2:07 PM -
Thread is marked as Resolved.
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You really need to explain your setup more / better.
What type of external axis is it ? Positioner, turntable, rocket launcher ?
Are the two robots working / welding independently on their own positioned and never together, or are they sharing the positioner ?
Do they need to work coordinated ? (i.e. do you need to rotate the positioner while welding ?)Eax wizard does exist in newer RS.
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2 robots 3d printing/extruding on a rotating work piece (driven by mu100).
Since its to high for the robots to reach another axis slide taking them up and down (driven by mu100 as well).
Speed needs to be coordinated between all axes, pretty close to the sync arc demo scene probably.
In sync arc scene the work object is not driven by a mechanical unit.The configuration isnt supported by build from layout, but not sure if i need to create my own moc.cfg since both motors are abb standard parts? What defines a valid configuration and can it be added?
Some descriptions of robotstudio 5 mention a xxutilityAdditionalAxis library that is gone now in version 6?A motor is a mechanism already, so do i have to create one (of type extrernal axis) for it? Use external axis wizard? Should it be attached anywhere?
Setup a workobject that is "moved by mechanical unit"?
Sorry if all of these are noob questions -
Somebody pointed me to editing template files:
There are template files used to connect the motors to the drive system and measurement system. Listed below are files for motors connected to drive module 1 (located in Mediapool\RobotWare_5.XX.XXXX\Utility\AdditionalAxis\DriveSystem XX\General\DM1).Took me a while to find them at
C:\Users\$USER\AppData\Local\ABB Industrial IT\Robotics IT\RobotWare\RobotWare_6.08.1040\utility\AdditionalAxis
lets see -
It sounds like it won't be that complicated to set up, but yes, build from layout won't work.
You're better off creating your own system which will be, MultiMove Coordinated.
You can set up the system with two drive modules, but you will need to set up three motion tasks, one for each robot + it's elevator / hoist axis (think floor based track rotated 90 degrees so it's pointing up/down). and the third task is for the positioner.Maybe you mentioned it in another post, but which robots are you using ?
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My bad irb120s. So I should use Installation manager to build it?
The task concept is still a bit vague to me: are they mutual exclusive?
If the third task only has the z axis positioner how does the system know to coordinate the move? -
The 3rd task would only have the rotating axis.
The robot + it's Z-Axis (elevator) would each be in it's own task.
The robot will be set up as BaseFrame Move by Track/Elevator, so essentially it's a 7-axis unit.
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Thanks so much. Like in any reasonable complex software there are lots of ways to do the same thing...
Examples are using the System Builder but my understanding is that it should be used with version 6 anymore?
For a start i am trying to build with similar abb library mechanical units.
The SyncArc example has 3 tasks and then adds 2 hidden additional tAwSys_x tasks that are semi static, what are they likely for?
Is the workobject already needed at system creation time? -
Here's a quick RS System / Cell I put together this morning....
https://1drv.ms/u/s!AmKbXGjhYLhSnzcvsiTMIiIEgsWMI'm sure it has it's flaws as it's a bit of a quick and dirty, I haven't done a deep dive to make sure everything is 100% and I didn't get around to set up the coordination between the tasks but it should give you a few pointers as to how to set it up at least.
There isn't a "plug-n-play" option for what you're trying to do, the MU templates doesn't cover DM3 installations for example.
Technically I guess you could set up the 3rd axis on one of the other two drive modules, but it doesn't affect the system setup/programming so you can tinker with this a bit and get a feel for the setup.System Builder or installation manager doesn't matter, they're the "package generator" for RW5 and RW6 respectively.
I find installation manager easier to work with especially if you want to do changes after the fact.
Either way, you still need to manually configure some aspects of the motion parameters / tasks. -
Wow, very cool. Cannot wait to get to the office and try it out
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I feel bad about having more questions: So I am trying for the setup to use multimove.
For the single axis positioner I can only generate joint targets. Will that work if the targets in the other units are normal targets?
In the multimove wizards create paths stays greyed out. Do the sync instruction need to happen in all tasks?
The only example I could find is the arc welding station which uses joint targets.I find the documentation very detailed but its kinda hard to get some non-standard examples together.
I was able to use multiteach a very basic setup now, no luck with the real one.
Does it know External Axis? 40512: Missing External Axis Value -
Changing instructions to MoveExtJ, can I tell multiteach somehow?
I can change to MoveExtJ in statusbar but its sort of mixed system some external axes, some robots -
The external axis is not a TCP robot, hence the ExtJoints.
External Axis? 40512: Missing External Axis Value
generally happens when you have activated an external axis through rapid and try and execute a target (joint or robtarget) wich doesn't have a external axis value for that axis in it's target.
Do you know which axis it was ?
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I finally got it work with all jointtargets and some RAPID hacking, its a start.
Will try with robtargets tomorrow (for the task that has both irb120 and elevator) as I would prefer to use them.
Thanks for your help again -
To me it looks like the secret sause of multimove wizard is to make one robot to be auto calculated (jump to).
Will it work with joint targets for an axis? Multiple robots and paths?
Any way to do the same in code?I think as soon as I add an external axis in the task its jointtargets only and it multimove wont play along?
Was the arc welding example done with multi move? -
I finally made some real progress with the motion planning using robotargets and moveC after seeing this example
https://forums.robotstudio.com/discussion/106…ing-of-a-spiral.
They sync the rotating axes by adding it to the target. Would that work with the elevator as well?In my current setup however only jointtargets will work (task has axis and robot).
Is there any way around this or is it possible to convert to jointargets on the fly? -
They sync the rotating axes by adding it to the target. Would that work with the elevator as well?No they don't and no it won't, plus the way they did the spiral program is very crude and not the best way...
Anyway....
Adding an axis to "the target" won't make it "synchronized" (i.e. coordinated motion) by default.If you looked at my RobotStudio station and played around with it you'd see that the robots are coordinated with the elevators.
The elevators are set up as tracks / linear axis.
The robot is set up with "BaseFrame Move By: TRACK" and THIS is what makes it synchronized / coordinatedIf it was just one robot you could easily set up your positioner / rotating axis as a part of your target (i.e. in the same motion task), but you'd still have to calibrate the baseframe and set up a workobject linked to that mechanical unit - THIS is what makes it synchronized / coordinated
However !
Because you have two robots which both need to coordinate/be synchronized with the SAME external axis (the rotating one) they all need to be in individual tasks. (robot+lift) (rotating axis) (robot+lift)Where are you in your attempts to get this going ? Can you share a RSPG (PM if you'd like) ?
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I do understand and appreciate your setup except for it would force me to work completely in joint coordinates instead of TCP.
Since my printing does a helix like object having moveC available to do circles is very valuable.
I calculate slicing for printing outside robotstudio. Maybe its possible to sample results from moveC and convert to joint coordinates.
My understanding is you have to pick one (TCP coordinates or multimove with external axes)?
Is drawing a helix in joint coordinates a good idea? -
The robots should/will always be TCP, the external axis (the single rotating one) will be joint targets... but it always will be regardless of setup.
The robots will still reference the XYZ values of the coordinated object frame from that positioner, but the positioner itself will always be programmed in extjoint targets. -
Can i still control my ibr120s in tcp space?
Not in the gui from my tests it just wont let me ad robtargets in the path. Maybe in RAPID?
Combing these approaches would be ideal.
What is the effect of Setting up the rotary axes without a separate task?
To complicate things a bit more both robots share 1 elevator not sure if that matters. -