UR3e and UR5e Sharing a single light curtain

Technical Questions
1

Hi all,

We currently have a setup of 2No. Universal robot arms - a UR3e and a UR5e. We have these installed as a collaborative setup within a “safety cell” in which is protected by a light curtain. We have connected the light curtain to configurable input CI0 and CI1 on the UR3e using the 24v supply of the UR3e.

In the current setup, only one of the arms (the UR3e) controls the light curtain, which works OK for stopping that arm if the light curtain is interrupted. That leaves the UR5e to continue working if the light curtain is interrupted.

How would we go about operating the light curtain shared among the 2 UR arms i.e., both arms stop working when light curtain is interrupted. Is this just a matter of daisy chaining the CIO and CI1 configurable inputs? But then, what about power?

Thanks in advance.

Any help appreciated.

2

Hello,

Can you send more details?

  • How is electric circuit set up? - You should connect curtain in parallel with both - UR3e and UR5e.
  • Have you assigned in UR5e safety that this is emergency stop? (Check the picture)

Regards,
Giorgi

3

Hi @giorgigedaminski , thanks for reply.

So far, I have simply set up the UR3e with the safety settings i.e., provided 24v power and OSSD1 and OSSD2 wired to CI0 and CI1 - I have set to reduced mode in the safety settings of the tablet.

Subsequently, the light curtain works as an I/O and puts the UR3e arm in reduced mode as expected, but obviously the UR5e would continue working as it is not currently wired to the light curtain.

Is there a specific way to wire the UR5e to reduced mode also when light curtain is activated? What way do you suggest wiring ?

4

So, I don’t have the curtain, but I use safeguard button. But connection type would be the same as it’s shown on the simple drawing here:

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This way, CI0 and CI1 of UR3e and CI0 and CI1 of UR5e will be in parallel, once curtain is interrupted circuit will be cut for both UR3e and UR5e.

5

There are a couple of ways you could go about this.

option 1
You could just connect the OSSD’s to both robots as giogigedaminski suggests however you have the problem of power ( as you said the light curtain is supplied from the UR3.) and trying to switch CI0 and CI0 in the UR5 with a supply form the UR3 would almost certainly cause damage to your one or both of your Robots.

You could invest in an external power supply and supply both UR’s and the light curtain with this.

option 2
Wire the OSSD’s to a Safety relay with a couple of channels or positively guided relay(s) and Wire the 24v & CI0 & CI1’s from both UR’s through the safety channels. You can power the Relay coil from the UR3 as power goes through 0V isolated contacts

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I’d personally go with option 2