Communication between kuka lbr iiwa 7 and PC

kubas99x · August 22, 2022 at 12:15 PM

Hello guys,
I'm working with kuka lbr iiwa 7 r800 and I want to write a program that will wait for signal from the PC and depending on received signal it will execute appropriate function on the robot. In documentation I have found something about UDP protocol. Is it possible to send some information via UDP to robot? And not only to start or stop program like in external control. If yes, then how should I do this?

I will be really greatfull for your help!

**SkyeFire** · August 22, 2022 at 4:24 PM

I've never done this, but my understanding of the iiWA is that the Sunrise operating system makes it possible to do almost anything a normal PC running Java can do. So it should be possible to write a UDP or TCP/IP communication subroutine in "plain" Java using example code from typical examples available from Java books or sites like StackOverflow.

A corresponding program would have to be written on the remote PC, of course.

kubas99x · August 22, 2022 at 8:02 PM

Ok I understand, but what about hardware? To which slot should I connect the ethernet cable? X66 Kuka Line Interface or LAN Onboard – KUKA Option Network Interface ? And is it necessary to configure it in Work Visual?
Sorry for my stupid questions but I've started working with this robot a while ago and there is not much informations about it in documentation.

**SkyeFire** · August 23, 2022 at 3:00 PM

Should be KLI, I believe. KONI used to be reserved for vision systems, although I believe it is now more flexible.

**panic mode** · August 24, 2022 at 3:22 PM

be careful with using WorkVisual with LBR.

First of all you must make sure that you are using exact WorkVisual version that is compatible with specific SunriseOS version that your system runs.

And making mistake in WorkVisual (an easy thing to do) can be a pain to fix.

Fortunately WorkVisual is rarely used here - it is only used to configure IO, everything else is done in SunriseWorkBench itself.

mabot · August 25, 2022 at 9:25 AM

You can use KONI for UDP, but it requires FRI as I understand.

*Point it out if it is wrong, I always use FRI option when I use KONI port.

Then you should be clear about which port, which IP is set at the KONI port.

You can edit them at StationSetup.cat.

For the UDP communications, I think you might use these in code.

java.net.DatagramPacket;

java.net.DatagramSocket;

java.net.InetAddress;

About UDP there are some port number limitations, it's written in "Operating and Programming Instructions for System Integrators" section 12.3

kubas99x · August 25, 2022 at 5:59 PM

Quote from SkyeFire

I've never done this, but my understanding of the iiWA is that the Sunrise operating system makes it possible to do almost anything a normal PC running Java can do. So it should be possible to write a UDP or TCP/IP communication subroutine in "plain" Java using example code from typical examples available from Java books or sites like StackOverflow.
A corresponding program would have to be written on the remote PC, of course.

I've done it like you said. First I've made client and server between 2 computers just to check if code is OK. Then I've made server on the robot in a thread which I'm starting when I want to receive a message from the PC. It works perfectly, I can easly send any string message to robot and it will receive it.

I've connected ethernet cable to KLI (didn't try other slots). Configuration in WorkVisual wasn't necessary.

Quote from mabot

You can use KONI for UDP, but it requires FRI as I understand.
*Point it out if it is wrong, I always use FRI option when I use KONI port.
Then you should be clear about which port, which IP is set at the KONI port.
You can edit them at StationSetup.cat.
For the UDP communications, I think you might use these in code.
java.net.DatagramPacket;
java.net.DatagramSocket;
java.net.InetAddress;
About UDP there are some port number limitations, it's written in "Operating and Programming Instructions for System Integrators" section 12.3

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Yes, on kuka iiwa slots for UDP for user are in range of 30000-30010. If I've used other ones there was an error "the slot is in use".

Thank you guys very much for help! On Monday I will paste here a code. Maybe it will be helpful for someone.

kubas99x · August 30, 2022 at 9:53 AM Best Answer

Main program:

Code

@Override
    public void run() {
        while(!messageMain.equals("endProgram")){
            try {
                messageMain = receiveMessage();
                getLogger().info("Message in main: " + messageMain);
            } catch (SocketException e) {
                e.printStackTrace();
            }
        }
    }

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And thread:

Code

public class UDP_2 implements Runnable  {
    private DatagramSocket socket;
    private boolean running;
    private byte[] buf = new byte[256];
    public String message = "";
    public UDP_2(DatagramSocket socket_){
        socket = socket_;
    }
    public void run() {
        running = true;

        while (running) {
            DatagramPacket packet = new DatagramPacket(buf, buf.length);//we instantiate a DatagramPacket to receive incoming messages.
            try {
                socket.receive(packet);//This method blocks until a message arrives and it stores the message inside the byte array of the DatagramPacket passed to it.
            } catch (IOException e) {
                e.printStackTrace();
            }
            InetAddress address = packet.getAddress();
            int port = packet.getPort();
            packet = new DatagramPacket(buf, buf.length, address, port);
            String received = new String(packet.getData(), 0, packet.getLength());
            received = received.replaceAll("\u0000.*", "");     
            try {
                socket.send(packet);
                buf = new byte[256];
                running = false;
            } catch (IOException e) {
                e.printStackTrace();
            }
        }
        socket.close();
    }
}

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mabot · August 31, 2022 at 5:56 PM

Thank you for updating codes!

Communication between kuka lbr iiwa 7 and PC

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