Programming Epson Robots

ME 4135 – Fall 2012Dr. R. Lindeke

Operating Ideas for Epson Environment

We are currently using this method

Overview

Safety and Movement Developing A First Program Some Cool Tools

– Pallets– SubRoutines– Etc.

Proofing w/ the Simulator Running the Robots

Safety And Movement Commands

For Robots to be operated safely the operator must clear the workspace

Each defined location must be moved to at slow speeds before inserting into programs

Programs must be proofed step by step at reduced speed – physically using moving commands in teach pendent or Robot manager

Safety And Movement Commands

Motion is Either:– Point to Point where the robot

travels from a pose to a pose and then stops before executing its next move

– CP (continuous path) where the robot travels ‘thru’ an intermediate and it doesn’t execute a complete deceleration to a stop before heading to a new point

Safety And Movement Commands

Operator sets both Speed and Acceleration levels

In interpolated movements they follow SPEEDS and ACCELS rates

MOVE, BMove or ARC

For other motions they follow SPEED and ACCEL rates

GO, JUMP or BGo

Safety And Movement Commands

PTP:

CP:

Safety And Movement Commands

The Epson RC 5.0 language supports the following motion commands:– GO: (pnt-to-pnt or CP) joint

motion from current pose to defined target pose

– MOVE: (pnt-to-pnt or CP) linear interpolated motion from current Pose to a defined target pose

Safety And Movement Commands

Epson also includes Relative motion commands:– BGo XY(0,0,15,0,0,0) which moves TCP

relative in Local (base) system by 15 units in Z0 direction; TGo(0,0,15,0,0,0) is relative move in current tool frame

– BMove XY(0,30,15,0,0,0) moves TCP linearly in Local (base) Frame 30 (Y0) by 15 (Z0) units; TMove XY(0,30,15,0,0,0) moves TCP linearly in current tool Frame

Safety and Motion Commands

Motion along a Spline Path (previously defined in a ‘CURVE” statement) can be executed using the CVMove motion command

Safety And Movement Commands

It is always best to approach objects without “slewing” and at controlled rates

To accomplish this, Epson has included – “Jump” (SCARA) – “Jump3” (6 Axis Art Arm)

These commands are combinational motions that can be executed either PTP or CP

They use ARCH table from how high to “Jump” during the motion

Using a connection, and the “Robot Manager” tools we can access and set the values of the ARCH setting for use with the Jump and

Jump3 (Jump3CD) commands and note a ‘Z’ or height above distance is specified

Safety And Movement Commands

It is seen that the motion is in 3 parts: movement away from the current position to a clear

plane depart is set in ARCH table movement toward the target position drop to the target position from the clear plane

approach motion also in ARCH table

Safety And Movement Commands

ARC and ARC3 are circular interpolated motion from the current position

They require a midpoint and end point to be specified

They can operate PTP or CP

Safety And Movement Commands

Safety And Movement Commands

Examining Syntax Go:

Safety and Movement Commands

Examining Syntax for Move:

Safety and Movement Commands

Examining Syntax for BGo or TGo:

Safety and Motion Commands

Examining Syntax for BMove or TMove:

Safety and Motion Commands

Examining Syntax for JUMP and JUMP3

Safety and Motion Commands

Safety and Motion Commands

Examining Syntax for ARC and ARC3

Motion Commonalities

All require some form of geometry as a target

In common use, these are defined as stored point targets either as P#’s or point labels.

Defining Points:

If known apriori (though IKS’ing Robot Maps) They can be directly entered into the robot point tables

Defining Points

Points can also be defined using the Teach and Jog Mode in the Teach Pendent

As seen earlier, when connected, we can use the Robot Manager tool to jog the robot about and define point geometry as well. If points are

already defined, the jog & teach tab of manager also allow the user to ‘drive’ the robot among and around points using the various motion

types

Defining a New Project

Epson RC 5.0+ uses projects to bundle the various parts of a robot executable program together.

It couples Points with Programs and simulations or Vision Tools

It includes all of the various main and sub-routines needed to complete tasks

Simply click Project Tab – select new and then give project a name and file location. After saving the project a build window (as seen here) is

generated

Once it is initialized it contains all of the standard files and a main

function for our use

From here it is mandatory that we do some planning (flow charting) of the desired activity; develop a

map of the expected solution identifying relevant points; and

finally an I/O map for use with the solution.

And only then do we start to build the program and sub-routines,

‘tills’ and ‘traps’

Defining a New Project

We pre-define variables names (up to 32 characters in length):

Integers (as singles or arrays) Longs (as singles or arrays) Strings (as singles or arrays) & up to 255

characters Booleans (as singles or arrays) Reals (as singles or arrays) Double (as singles or arrays) Byte Global variables that can be used anywhere in

program– must be declared outside of functions

Diving In:

We’ll do it live (– or sorta live)

Taking Baby Steps!