Ethernet IP and Profinet fieldbus support as well as the Conveyor Tracking front-end (all part of the Universal Robots software) are developed by Universal Robots using the URCap Software Platform.
The Conveyor Tracking URCap was developed because customers spent too much time configuring conveyor tracking. It features a more complex installation screen where the robot can be setup to follow a linear or circular conveyor using different types of encoders. Furthermore, the customized program node will adjust the robot’s movements to follow the conveyor (based on the configuration in the installation screen) while the program is executing under the node.
The Ethernet IP and Profinet URCaps provide an installation screen which allow users to enable/disable the feature, view status/connection information and configure a connection watchdog which determines what program action to perform (none, pause, stop) when the connection is lost.
Both URCaps install a daemon executable that implements the specific fieldbus communication protocol stack. The daemon executable uses the RTDE to synchronize different types of data (various state, I/O, input/output registers etc.) with the UR controller without breaking any real-time properties (see RTDE guide). From the installation screen, the daemon executable can be started or stopped. XML-RPC (see XML-RPC example or the script manual) is used to communicate with the daemon in order to transfer different state and connection information to be displayed in the installation screen.
