Simulator to robot programming workflow

Technical Questions URScript
1

Does anyone have a workflow they would like to share for programming on the simulator and then moving files to a robot ?

I’m using magic files to move programs but I’m not sure it is all working properly.

Is there a summary of what are contained in the three files associated with every program name and what can be changed ? Sometimes it would be helpful to just open a text editor and make a couple changes but I’m not sure what I can change.

If someone is successfully programming on the simulator and then reliably moving files to the robot and is willing to share how they are doing it, I would be very appreciative.

Thanks in advance for any help provided.

Mark

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2

@mchollett

Generating a program in URSim, and moving to the robot is straight forward.

The files generated by a program are:

  • .urp: Contains the program including “meta data”, and which is loadable from PolyScope to generate the graphical view. The file is compressed XML - but an uncompressed XML file with a .urp extension can also be loaded in PolyScope. The XML is fairly human readable, and might be programmatically altered, however the syntax is not documented and hence this is not very straight forward.
  • .script: The generated script code from the program, including contributions from the Installation. This equivalent to the script code, that is sent to URControl for execution using Primary Client Interface. You could eventually grab this code, programatically alter it (straight forward, as this is documented in the URScript manual), and send this to the a client interface for execution. However altering the script file will not change the .urp, and if you save the .urp again, the .script will normally be overwritten.
  • .txt: The PolyScope program tree in plain text, just for documentation purpose.

In order to run in PolyScope, you would also need the two contributions from the Installation.

  • .installation: Contains the settings from the installation, including TCP and payload setup, Modbus signals, safety configuration, Features and settings from URCaps Installation nodes.
  • .variables: Contains Installation variables and their value.

When you have generated the program in URSim, copy the .urp, .installation and .variables (if there is one) to the robot, and load the program.
This might prompt you that the active installation is not the same as the one your program requires (hence read from the program metadata) and you would need to load that installation, or alternatively set the program to run with another installation file.

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3

I have used a USB flash drive to move files between the simulator and a physical robot. You may have to enable an extension to allow the USB to mount to the virtual machine, but once you do this you will have read/write access to the USB’s directory. Once you save the files onto the USB, you can remove it from your PC then insert it into the teach pendant, then open the program files from there.

4

Depending on the VM software you use, just using “CTRL+C” in VM and “CTRL+V” in e.g. Windows desktop will copy the selected files using your shared clipboard - given this is enabled.

5

If all else fails, you could use a web browser on the VM to email yourself the files.

6

Thanks to everyone that replied. I am able to get the files onto the simulator and back onto a USB drive.

I’m missing something on the robot side. I have tried using the magic upload file to move the files to the robot but it doesn’t look like it moves the .installation and .variable files to the robot.

Is there a way to get a command prompt on the robot side or use the polyscope programming to move the files ?