Hello ,
I am starting a project with an UR10e linked to a master PLC in profinet and physical I/O if needed. The robot should be fully controlled by the PLC in automatic production.
I am used to work with state diagram (state (running, pause, stop cat1 etc…)/ transition( start, pause etc…)) on the slaves i pilot.
My question is the following:
Does an absolute state diagram exists on URe robot, so i could easily program my PLC and control the robot from any state ?
Thank you
Hi,
An absolute state diagram does not exist but there is a document that explains the robot states you would most likely care about (Robot Mode and Safety Modes). Here is a link : https://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/ur-support-site/20596/pn-iomessage.pdf
To understand the safety mode and robot mode see the graphic below.
You can monitor the states using this information and effect some control. To gain full control you will have to use the dashboard server as there are some aspects of the robot that cannot be controlled via fieldbus (today). As an example, clearing a popup requires you to use another interface called the dashboard server. So go to the support portal and search for dashboard and hopefully this will become clearer. HOWEVER, this requires socket communication from your PLC (not easy).
There is another tool (urcap) that has not been released yet but it will make this easier. It is from a company called Robot27 and the tool is called a ‘fielbus connector app’. What it does is allow you to send commands to the dashboard server using an integer value sent via some register mapped to the fieldbus interface (so your plc program will not have to manage ascii string communication via sockets). This tool is available from Robot27 so please go to their web site to inquire. What this urcap does is it behaves as a proxy of sort for your plc program, taking care of mapping an integer command from the plc into an ascii command for the dashboard server. It also tells you (most importantly) whether the robot is in remote mode or not. So, this is the other thing you will want to understand from the UR User Manual… remote and local mode. You will only be able to fully control the robot from a plc when Polyscope is in remote mode.
Hi,
The Robot27 Connect app will be out next week. Let me know if we can help you!
Doug Spinn
Robot27
Hi,
Thank you very much for the reply, this is very useful.
I will check urcap too.
I’ll send other questions on this topic if ii need more clarifications.
Marc