Yes, but one that is only suitable for these exact conditions. I'd like something more applicable to different situations.
Posts by Agustin Costa
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Hello,
I'm working on a pick & place project where the robot picks from a conveyor and deposits the products in predefined positions. The products have to be picked from a certain orientation so that they're placed correctly everytime. The coordinates and orientation are sent by a camera so I don't have the exact Status and Turn for the place the robot needs to go to pick the product.
My problem is that the controller maintains the S and T from the previous motion so sometimes it performs the shortest motion and sometimes A6 turns 360° more than it should. I want to be able to limit the motion range of axis A6 on a KR3 R540 robot so that it works between -180 and 180.
The only solution I could come up with is geometrically calculate the position of A6 on the end point and set the bit 5 of Turn so that it takes the path I prefer. This is a complicated solution because it works for this particular setup, so what I want is a way to set conditions for the motion planner to take into account. For example to choose the shortest path and disregard the previous Turn or set working limits for an axis (but not the ones that stop the robot for safety purposes). Is this possible?
I've been reading all the manuals I think can be relevant for this but I couldn't find anything.
Thanks
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Hello everyone,
I am currently working on a project with two robots using the KRC4 controller with KSS 8.6.6 and Profinet 5.0 installed on both.
What I need to accomplish is have both robots communicate with a Siemens PLC through Profinet all their IO. I've already performed the necessary configurations on one of the robots and I've got it working fine.
My problem is that when I tried to set up the second one I found that in the IO Mapping tab in WoV, the available Profinet IO addresses are the same as in the previous robot and I can't find a way to modify them. With 256 IOs configured, inputs range from addr 18.0 - 49.7 and outputs 17.0 - 48.7.
Is there a way to change these default addresses?
Thanks
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SkyeFire where can I find more information on the function generator? I've been reading the System Variables manual but it references the function generator as if one already knew what it is and when/how to use it. Are there any examples you can provide?
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Well, I'll have to keep on moving the conveyor by discreet steps then. Thanks for the info!
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Hello,
I am working on a pick and place application where items come to the robot in a conveyor which moves in discreet steps. Right now I am using an incremental encoder and a Siemens PLC to count the encoder pulses, transmit them to the robot using Profinet and the robot uses a cyclical interrupt to update the position of one of its bases so that it moves with the conveyor.
This approach works right now because the robot only acts when the conveyor has stopped moving so when the robot begins executing a motion instruction (for example SPTP point WITH $BASE=movingBase) the base position has already been updated. The problem is that if the conveyor moves while the robot is executing a motion comand, the motion is not updated during its course.
I'm wondering if it's possible for the motion to be updated (every 50-100ms would be fine) with the data from the encoder. From what I've read in the manuals when the Advance Run pointer reaches a motion instruction it already calculates the path and that's why it doesn't update in my case. I know there are software packages like ConveyorTech and RSI that can be used but they're really expensive so I'm looking for another solution.
Thank you
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Hi panic mode,
I'm asking for a new robot which initially doesn't have any of these options. I've only tried EthernetKRL for this purpose so I wanted community feedback for others such as OPC UA, ProfinetIO, etc, for this kind of application.
As far as I've read the difference between EthernetKRL and the others is that in the others the communication is through mapping IOs instead of reading from a buffer into variables, but I don't know if there are any advantages to it.
We're developing the vision system ourselves so we'd be using a PC to process the images and communicate with the robots.
I'm asking because I assume it's a common application of robots and vision systems together, so there may be a better solution than what I'm doing.
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Hello,
I am working on a project in which a camera needs to send the coordinates of objects to a robot for it to pick them.
I wanted to know from the experience of everyone in this forum what is the best method/software package to achieve this. The question is specifically about the sending and receiving data between PC and KRC4, not the further programming needed on both ends. Also, consider that the robot needs to preform a cycle every 1 second, so it's not real time control but communication needs to be fast.
I currently have the EthernetKRL package on the robot we have in the lab and it works fine (with some issues sometimes when opening and closing the server) but for this new project I am open to use an alternative if it has advantages. For example, in this project I will also be using Profinet, is there a way to send data through Profinet from a PC?
Thank you
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I've found the answer to this issue on the Siemens Industry Support Forum, here is the link:
In summary, if anyone wants to use an S7-1200 with the KRC4 the small detail to take into account is that in the TIA Portal Topology View the PLC and robot controller should not be connected through the Profinet interface. It's not really clear why but it worked for me.
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Thanks, for the fast response panic mode , I already managed to solve it by deleting the whole safe IO in the KRC4 module in TIA Portal. My problem was that the GSDML already included these safe IO although I had already disabled them in the Profinet configuration in WoV, so the issue was on the Siemens side.
I attach a photo of what I deleted in case it's of any use to somebody.
With that solved I'm now trying to solve a seemingly unrelated error where the communication between the PLC and robot controller seems to fail intermittently. In the PLC's diagnostic buffer I get the error: "Error on partner - Wrong partner". This error appears intermittently but the PLC doesn't stop and I'm controlling the robot without issues.
Any clue as to why this is happening?
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Hello,
I want to implement the control of the KRC4 controller with a Siemens PLC as detailed in the Kuka SI manuals to monitor system variables and control program execution with the PLC, but I am still handling the safety of the robot through the physical X11 interface instead of through Profisafe.
My problem is that I don't currently have a F-CPU to try it, only a regular S7-1200, and when importing the KRC4 GSDML to TIA Portal it says "An F-Module in safety mode can only be used by an F-CPU in which F-capability is enabled". Is there a way to work with higher level control without a safety PLC?
I haven't found a way to disable the safety features in the KRC4 "module" on TIA Portal and I even tried to edit the GSDML but it's much harder than I thought.
Has anyone dealt with the same problem and can help me?
Thanks
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No luck with that either
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So this confirms my suspicion that this must be a network problem and nothing to do with the Kuka softwares instead. The thing is that I've turned off the firewall on both the guest and the host and configured the IPs correctly so that I can ping both machines from the other and it still isn't working.
In the attached images are the network configurations for my pc and the VM. Let me know if you find something strange in these. I've talked about this extensively with Kuka support but we couldn't find the solution.
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I've fixed the connection issues with the help of Kuka support but I still can't connect SimPro to OfficeLite. When I enter the OfficeLite PC's domain and click connect nothing happens. SimPro gets stuck in "Connecting to (OL PC)" and in the VM the KrcVrc 2.0.1.4 Release icon appears in the lower right corner but that's it.
I can still open the KRC manually but it doesn't work when connecting to VRC.
I've even used Wireshark to check if there is any communication between machines and when the connection is started there seems to be exchange of TCP packets but I don't know enough about this to tell anything else about it.
Has anyone had this problem?
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panic mode There is Kuka support in my time zone but for this kind of things I need to speak to those on Europe with 5hs difference. I've got the license for all components so that isn't the problem.
I've managed to speak to Kuka support now but they said I should use the VM's network adapter in NAT mode instead of Bridged but this way I don't even get ping between the VM and the physical machine. Either way, with Bridged mode I get ping between the machies but the communication between Sim Pro and OfficeLite still can't be established. Now I'm waiting to hear back from the simulation people in Germany, if they provide a solution I'll post it here.
dexterv I read abaout that on the forum so before posting I downgraded to 15.1.0build-13591040 -
Hello,
I am trying to use the VRC option connecting my Sim Pro 3.0.5 simulation to Office Lite 8.3 but I can't manage to get it to work. Both softwares are licensed and working, with the VRC option installed in OfficeLite.
I've followed the manuals and tutorials online, but when I get to the step of creating the connection from Sim Pro it gets stuck in "Connecting" and doesn't continue to the next step of selecting the robot (with the KRC closed on the VM). I've tried both Bridged and NAT network adapter settings on the VM and I can ping both machines from the other one.
Has anyone had this problem? I tried to reach Kuka support but it's difficult contacting them in their working hours because of the difference in time zones.
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Hello everyone,
I am working on a project with a robot and no PLC, so the robot will be functioning in AUT mode and the controller handling all the safety and inputs/outputs.
The question I have is how to perform an action after an emergency stop (internal or external). I want the controller to restart the program or make it jump to a known state so that I can restart the motion safely instead of it continue moving immediately after the e-stop is acknowledged. I've read this can be done when using a PLC by using the CWRITE command to the CELL program, but that didn't work for me (I may have done it wrong).
Additionally, I would also like for a program to be selected on startup so that an operator doesn't need to interact with the SmartPad for anything, any suggestions for this?
Thank you!
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Siemens HMI are designed to be used with Siemens PLC. I don't think there is a way to connect it directly with other profinet IO devices.
Yes, I just spoke with Kuka support and
they said that the HMIs use a S7 protocol, not Profinet IO so you can only use the HMI through a Siemens PLC or using something like OPC as panic mode said
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Hello panic mode I have the M/S option.
I've spoken with kuka support and they said that they could help me with the WV side of the communication which I've already configured. I added the device to the profinet bus and mapped the IO.
The problem is that those same IOs are not available in the TIA Portal software to assign tags and I can't find a way to establish a communication with the robot controller. I know this isn't a Siemens forum but I was hoping somebody else had succeded in doing this.
The alterative that Kuka suggested was using OPC or other protocol but it's a paid option I don't have.