Hi guys
I work for UR as a service technician, and I know how to program fairly well using the teach pendant and simulator. I have no experience with URScript and I was curious if it’s practical to do all programming using the teach pendant. Is it necessary to learn script to become a programmer?
When you get beyond simple tasks, or are using external devices which don’t have robust URCaps, you will need to write some scripts.
These scripts can be pretty simple, but there are things which aren’t directly supported by Polyscope.
We use scripts to:
- Process position data from cameras
- Process dimensions from gages
- Create more complicated popup messages
- Create custom palletize routines
- Handle any calculations required
- Control stepper motors for positioning
- Sending SPC data to our network database
- Control external displays
Some of the scripts we have written weren’t absolutely necessary, or maybe could have been done with a combination of Polyscope nodes and single-line script commands. For many of them it boils down to personal preference or consistency within an organization, or convenience of editing – long Polyscope programs can be difficult to follow.
I have worked with UR robots for many years now and have some experience with them I’d say. I still do all my programming in PolyScope and use the built-in nodes, even though it might be quicker to do the coding in URScript.
There’s often a couple of thousand lines, and I make most of the program in the simulator on my computer and then transfter it to the robot, where I teach the positions, features, TCPs etc. 
The good thing about using the built-in nodes is the synchronization of variables etc which happens automatically.
This is a snippet of a program, which I barely used any URScript coding for (except for the pose_add and similar functions found in the expression editor, but used in a regular Assignment node):
I like that it’s easier for the customer/other technicians with less programming knowledge to access the program and maybe make corrections. Or I like to think that it’s easier.
I have been working with Universal Robot for a few years now and at first I was fine with the simple nodes. If you want to use the robot to its full potential you will inevitably need URScript. It also helps a lot if you have some knowledge of Python as there are many parallels.
I use mostly only polyscope with a few smaller scripts, the main reason is that its easier for someone not as experienced to read the code and to make adjustments if needed.