KUKA display signal names in program file

one way that does directly what you mention is to use inline form instructions.

but like everything else it has good and bad sides. one is that changing description does not update all places in programs that use it, also ILFs add wrapper around code instead of staying single line commands etc. but it is pretty handy and new users would love it.

another way is to not use those comments (or at least not rely on them). use SYMBOLs.

you can think of it as an alias for physical I/Os. you can name them any way you like - within constraints of KRL naming conventions. also this is great way to organize I/O and map the signals to real I/O.

suppose you have $IN[4] in in ten places in program and then you have 20-30 such programs. and one day the input is not working correctly for some reason (fried or busted terminal etc.) and you NEED to get system working. no problem, forget about busted terminal, jst connect that wire to another nearby input terminal. and instead of going through many programs etc, you just change in one line

SIGNAL Abort_Progam $IN[4]

to

SIGNAL Abort_Progam $IN[7]

and you are done...!

this is great way to run same programs on different robots with different I/O configurations. programs is the same, just SIGNAL declarations are to be updated.

better yet when program encounters WAIT command etc message is displayed, usually with some generic 'Waiting for $IN[87]'. great but who the heck is going to remember what hundreds of IOs are o they can decode such message. but one could also just replace that address with SIGNAL and life is good. message is readable and in plain text "WAITING FOR Abort_Program".

As Panic mode said, using signal makes reading the program so much cleaner and user friendly.

The way I do it, is in Config.dat.

Within the fold "User Globals" I declare all my user signals.

Simple example:

Config.dat:

;Inputs

SIGNAL Area_Occupied_1 $IN[21]

SIGNAL Job_Finished_1 $IN[31]

SIGNAL Download_Sensor $IN[41]

SIGNAL Clamps_Closed $IN[200]

;Outputs

SIGNAL Close_Clamps $OUT[200]

Program would look like this:

PTP 10

Wait for Download_Sensor == True

Area_Occupied_1=True

PTP Pick Position

Close_Clamps=True

Wait for Clamps_Closed==True

PTP 20

Wait for Download_Sensor=False

Job_Finished_1=True

Unfortunately, the names in the I/O Display window have nothing to do with the names you can assign those signals using declarations like SIGNAL MyInput $IN[1].

One reason for this is that the Display names only exist in the Windows side of the robot's brain -- they are part of the user interface, but not part of the robot's core operations. I think KUKA did this originally to make it easier to put long, descriptive names into the user interface, without the 24-character, no spaces, no special characters, etc, limitations that KRL variable names have.

Unfortunately, this means that whomever is setting up the robot has to name all their signals twice -- once in the program for use, and once in the user interface for display. It can make for a better, more clear user interface for end users, but makes more work for the programmer.

but good programmer knows how to efficiently get one from another. it is a mere minute or two with excel for example.