Good day,
I was wondering how one would go about integrating a UR-5 to an EDM, make/model being in the title. I know the question is kind of out of the realm of this particular forum, but would anyone have any idea where to start in this process? That is, how I may call a certain program on an EDM from the robot itself? Moreso, what particular tools and resources would be necessary to make such a thing possible?
Many thanks.
Biggest thing for machine tending is deciding how you want to communicate to your machine. This will require you to do some digging on the machine’s documentation. Does it offer Modbus/TCP? EthernetIP? Can you discretely wire into some terminals?
The UR robot itself can act as a Modbus server, though you will want to read up on the modbus docs as well, as not all protocols are supported, from what I’ve seen.
For things like EthernetIP, it is important to know that the UR is a slave device. So likely your machine is as well, meaning you don’t have an EthernetIP scanner/master. You can use a cheap PLC for this, if all you need is to pass data back and forth from the UR to your machine.
Discrete signals are usually the easiest and fastest to get working. If your current machine has a PLC already, or inputs/outputs, the general handshaking is some very basic signals. The machine ties one of its outputs to the robot’s inputs as a “Ready to Load/Unload” (or similar) and the Robot ties its output to the machine’s input for a “Part Loaded” and maybe a “Cycle Start.”