Fanuc programming with a CAM

    Good morning everyone,

    I'm a mechanical engineering student and I'm looking for information:

    I want to create my robot's trajectories via CAM (NX CAM), therefore the software provides me with the steps to follow to carry out the operations (the objective is to do additive manufacturing of carbon fiber with the robot).

    With these coordinates I intend to create a program in Python that translates into a language understandable by the robot, and then upload this code to Roboguide or directly into the robot (LR Mate 200iC). I could directly load the points and modify the code in roboguide, but since these will be many, with many operations on the DOs (for example to activate the extrusion of the material etc.), it would be an unnecessarily laborious job and I would like to optimize it like "I translate the code and the robot is ready to print"

    My question is how to do it, from a translated code to inserting information into the robot, has anyone already done a similar job? :smiling_face:

    I found online that I could go through .ls files but there are various lines (the first ones) of code that I wouldn't know how to predict.

    In summary, what do you recommend translating my trajectories into and how do you recommend providing them to the robot?

    Thank you for your availability, and I hope my text is understandable (my native language is not English :frowning_face: )

  • massula March 3, 2024 at 5:03 PM

    Approved the thread.

    I'm not 100% sure, but I believe NX has post-processors to some robot manufacturers, including FANUC, so in theory You could have a program exported directly in FANUC TP language.

    What You must look is if this post-processors require additional licenses.

    Another attention point is if Your robot has ASCII upload option, to load .LS files directly. If not, You would first need to convert the .LS files to .TP files, the format FANUC controllers understand by default.

    And You also need to take care of programs size. If the programs are too big and robot refuses to load it because of its memory limitations, You need to find a way to "stream" the programs to robot memory.

    Thank you very much for the valuable information, unfortunately our NX does not allow direct export to TP so I have to translate the code in Python.

    Also I think I understand that putting files directly into the robot is problematic, so if I go through Roboguide can I have larger files and no problem with the ASCII Upload?

    I also have a .lc file found on the internet. we can divide it into three parts, where the second is the code and the third are the coordinates.

    In the first part there is various information such as: Memory size, Control_code, TCD, line count, ....

    If I create a .lc file from scratch I have to add these lines, otherwise Roboguide won't accept the program, or can I not do it and it does everything by itself? In this case, programming a translator would be simple, but I would be surprised if it were.

    Create a simple program on the robot with a single point. Then export the .ls version of that. Use that as a template for your code generation.

    Keep in mind, you cannot send a program to the robot that is in use or selected. I would recommend creating a main program that calls your generated programs to work around that issue.

    So, I think You need to divide this project on smaller steps

    1) Generate code on proper robot language

    2) Upload the program to the robot

    3) Check if this particular robot memory would accept Your programs.

    1) You already answered about the lack of a TP languagr post processor on Your NX installation, so You would need to create a Python script to handle this. Another approach would use a "man in the middle" software, like RoboDK, for example. If NX generate paths on G-Code, You could import it on RoboDK and after export it to a .LS file. But a Pyython script is a good idea as well. You would need to take care of the syntax, but since You have acess to a real robot and Roboguide, You can also can make some reverse engineering, creating programs in these platforms, looking at headers and other sections of the files and adapting Your Python scripts as needed.

    2) You need to check if Your robot has

    Ascii Program Loader R796

    Ascii Upload R507

    Software options installed

    Take a look here:

    Post

    Re: ASCII UPLOAD OPTION / KAREL PROGRAMMING VS TRADITION .TP

    Hi, rcran2015

    TP files are binary files used by controller, normally for user programming. Unless you have a FANUC specific tool, You can't open them in a regular text editor.

    LS files are a human readable format understood by FANUC controllers, and TP files can be exported as LS files. You cand read and edit LS files using a normal text editor.

    Normally, you can export your TP files as LS through MENU > FILE > File > [BACKUP] > ASCII programs

    But, the fact You can export to LS files doesnt mean…
    massula
    November 15, 2016 at 4:37 PM

    If Yes, You are covered. If not, You would need to upload the .LS files to Roboguide, and download this programs in the .TP native format..

    3) You need to check the TPP memory available on Your robot controller. Newer the controller, bigger the memory. Anyway, milling and printing programs tend to be huge, so in case of You can't upload everything to the robot, You need to "slice" Your programs on smaller parts and load and delete them according to some events. The poor man option would require some karel and/or .cm scripts pulling files from an external storage device (and the knowledge to make it). The other option would involve commercial available software. I believe FANUC has something like this, and other companies offer similar solutions as well.

    Thanks so much for your help, I've moved forward with the project and can provide some answers/ask more questions.

    1) for those who may be interested: the syntax in .LS files is of secondary importance, ditto for the Headers, in fact if roboguide is used as an intermediary it will automatically correct all this

    2) Unfortunately the loader is not available to me, so I am forced to use roboguide

    3.1) how can I check the available memory and maximum memory of my robot?

    3.2) Should I translate the files from a CAM into TP/LS format or should I be interested in Karel? it would be an important job that I would only do if it was worth it, which is why I ask someone who has more experience

    3.3) In case I have to use Karel or something else, can you direct me to a method to keep the program in the PLC (Beckhoff, so technically it is a Windows computer) and when necessary the robot requests the next part to continue the task automatically? or something similar (I'm a newbie)

    The purchase of components for the robot is possibly to be avoided according to the guidelines of my project, since I am doing prototyping (feasibility analysis) and when the project is valid this will be continued on another robot based on my instructions :confused_face:

    So, first things first: has your controller the Karel option installed?

    You didn't mentioned Your controller model and, in these cases, details matter. Judging by the mechanical arm model, I'm guessing that is a R-30iA controller, with software 7.something, and here is the trick: if I recall correctly, from R-30iA and onward, Karel stopped being a standard option and became a paid option.

    3.1)

    To check Your user available memory, go to MENU > Next > Status > Memory, and look for TPP memory.

    You must have something like this.

    pasted-from-clipboard.png

    In this case, I have almost 1 MB of free storage. There are some methods to expand this memory, but don't expect to much.

    3.2)

    You can check this on to MENU > Next > Status > Version ID > CONFIG, scroll down the list an look for KAREL (R632) option. If your controller don't have Karel, You will need some workaround.

    3.3)

    I wouldn't recommend pull programs from network, at least right now. This will add an extra layer of complexity on You project. Try to pull the programs from an external storage device physically attached to Your robot controller, as a USB stick or, better, a compact flash card.

    You should note that, if You follow this route, You need to take care of some aspects, for example, if You change a program on teach pendant, You need to write this program on the storage device again, or create some method to synchronize it.

    And, about Karel programming itself, You can try to search forum. I'm not sure, but I think I saw some Karel snippets here and there that make this load>run>delete scheme.

    Thank you very much for all the answers, finally I completely changed the procedure as my robot does not cooperate with me:smiling_face:

    Based on Fanucpy found on github, I will program the movements via SM, this way I will eliminate any memory problems and "I will program" the robot via Python.

    So I have a question open to everyone, especially people in industry (I'm in school and don't have all the information)

    If you had the ability to control your robot via a python script, what functions would you be interested in?

    I am currently implementing:

    - movements

    - register reading and writing

    - I/O

    - average speed

    - power consumption

    If anyone has advice on other things to implement that could be useful in the industry please feel free to give me advice and I will try to apply it


    Edit: I know there are other libraries that can do certain things, but I prefer to put everything in one library

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