Operate the movement of each Axis from external device

Good morning together,

I have got a question. When i check the Roboter Panel you can move the Axis X,Y,Z and Rx,Ry,Rz with the push buttons.

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I have seen on Robots (Non UR) that operator could also press those “buttons” on a HMI from an external machine and move the Robot (in manual mode) from the external PLC HMI.

My UR10e is connected to a Siemens PLC and I was wondering if it is somehow possible to create a screen like that on my Semens HMI. During production the Robot Panel will not be accessable.

Thank you very much.

Greetings from Luxembourg!

I haven’t done a lot of external control, but you should be able to send the robot commands over the primary interface (see guide here: Remote Control Via TCP/IP - 16496). So you should be able to send servoL/servoJ commands or just speedL/J commands when you press the buttons. The script manual (https://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/ur-support-site/115824/scriptManual_SW5.11.pdf) will be your friend in determining what the best command to use would be.

If you’re trying to save Waypoints as well, I’ll be honest I don’t really have any idea. I think at that point you would have to be operating the robot entirely remotely, and using get_actual_tcp() to store the position to a list of poses that’s being maintained on the remote system. That side of it is really outside my element. Maybe someone else can offer some more insight.

I´d b curious to know, what happens in the backround if i press that button on the UR panel:

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I mean basically it´s jsut moving the Z axis as long as i keep the button pressed…
Sorry but my technical english is not that good, so I´m always a bit struggling to understand those manuals…
And i didn´t see that there is any command to move a X or Y or Z…
Shame on me…

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A speedL command is most likely what is being used in the Jog arrows. So for Z+, it would be speedl([0,0,0.1,0,0,0], 0.5, 0.5)

hey @kadams ,

I have written a python code to manipulate the UR arm along its axis (x,y,z,rx,ry,rz) using the input from an external device like logitech extreme 3D pro joystick and a keyboard. check out my repo GitHub - aswathgovind/UR5_ExternalManipulation . I think this would completely solve your problem. For PLC, the same logic might be suffice but you might try going for URCaps.