Work visual ethernet IP local slave

Hi. I am new to KUKA. I was trying to understand what local slave 1 to 5 means on the ethernet ip communication settings. Could anyone direct me to any document? I have read through KUKA ethernet IP manual. It says stuff about how to set it but not what they actually mean. Like are they 5 physical devices?

I just configured a link between krc4 and Omron nx1p2 PLC with the PLC as master and used the KRC4 eds and the robot IP in sysmac studio to create the tag link.

I put the IP of my PLC as the scanner IP on the communication settings. I used local slave 1 and mapped it to the IO. Its working.

But I am confused because I never mentioned any IP address when configuring the local slave. I only mentioned the TO and OT instances.

How are the local slave 1 mapping and robot mapping related?

Quote from panic mode

on any fieldbus (EthernetIP included), connection is controlled by node that functions as a bus master. one master can talk to one or several slaves.

master is node that has info on partner nodes (slaves).

in case of KRC4, robot can act in several roles. One can use one or more of the roles at the same time:

1x EtherentIP master (standard or not safety rated)

5x EthernetIP slave (standard or not safety rated)

1x Safety slave (safety rated

those five tabs are configuration pages to setup robot as EthernetIP slaves.

this way robot can be slave to multiple masters, and at the same time also act as a master.

for example robot can own some IO to control things like robot grippers etc.

but at the same time, bunch of robots can be slaves to some PLC. this is preferred way to setup things because robot can still be operated with accessories like tools, regardless if rest of the plant is available or not - because robot can control everything directly

another option is to have all IOs controlled by PLC. this is limiting, because using local things like gripper etc would need to send commands to PLC and have PLC forward them to the gripper. so if the PLC is powered off, robot functionality would be limited because use of gripper would not be possible.

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Thanks for the excellent description.

Sorry for the follow up but if there are multiple master's then what scanner IP do I specify in communication settings?