Expected modifications when moving from URSim offline simulator to actual hardware robot

Hello,

I would like to control the UR in remote control mode either using the ROS drivers or with RTDE. I am primarily interested in controlling individual joint angles, controlling the cartesian pose of the Tool Center Point and trajectory control using joint position, velocity and acceleration commands.

I am curious about the functionalities offered by the URSim offline simulator. If I develop and qualify the intended functionality using the simulator and then move to the actual hardware robot, Do I have to make any modifications in the functionality?

Also, do we have any articles from UR specifying limitations of the offline simulator and expected changes while moving from offline simulator to actual hardware?

Hi,
UR does not have a document that describes what will change in going from URsim to actual robot. I can share a few observations I’ve made myself though :

  • Force mode does not work because there is no physical force/torque sensor in the simulator of course
  • Force feedback also does not work
  • EthernetIP driver does not work in simulator
  • The actual cycle time you get from executing a motion profile will be different and idealized in the simulator because you do not have physical feedback from joint encoders
  • Conveyor tracking will not work unless you can simulate the conveyor encoder counter changing somehow
  • You will not see many safety related stops because the safety control board system is not present in the simulator

Hope this helps.