The exported robot program uses “mm” for the external rotation axis instead of “deg” degree.

In case of a FANUC “.ls” robot program it would look as follows for a linear motion point. The external axis E1 is however a rotation axis.

P[113]{
GP1:
UF : 1, UT : 1, CONFIG : ‘N U T, 0, 0, 0’,
X = 4402.896 mm, Y = -2677.32 mm, Z = 2690.996 mm,
W = -30.559 deg, P = 9.583 deg, R = -95.614 deg,
E1= -26.586 mm
};

If your exporter does not directly support switchting to deg for the given rotation axis you can have the exporter automatically modify the exported text also in the exporter setting.

Step 0: Open the “Workflow” Editor. Step 1: Select the robot “Parameters”. Step2: Add a “Text modifyier”. Step 3: Select “Regular Expression” and edit the “text to be replaced” and the “replace with”. In our case of the FANUC program exporter:

Search for: “E1=(.*?)  mm”

Replace with: “E1=$1 deg”

WARNING:

One warning though: If your rotation module is already supported and its values are correctly exported in degree, the text-replacement can have an unexpected side effect: It collects E1= and mm beyond several command lines of the robot program. This converts:

P[136]{
GP1:
UF : 1, UT : 1, CONFIG : ‘F U T, 0, 0, 0’,
X = 3714.904 mm, Y = -2037.529 mm, Z = 937.005 mm,
W = -0.085 deg, P = -86.669 deg, R = 150.35 deg,
E1= -79.611 deg
};
P[137]{
GP1:
UF : 1, UT : 1, CONFIG : ‘F U T, 0, 0, 0’,
X = 3676.824 mm, Y = -2015.773 mm, Z = 959.199 mm,
W = -0.085 deg, P = -86.669 deg, R = 150.35 deg,
E1= -79.611 deg
};

into

P[136]{
GP1:
UF : 1, UT : 1, CONFIG : ‘F U T, 0, 0, 0’,
X = 3714.904 mm, Y = -2037.529 mm, Z = 937.005 mm,
W = -0.085 deg, P = -86.669 deg, R = 150.35 deg,
E1= -79.611 mm
};
P[137]{
GP1:
UF : 1, UT : 1, CONFIG : ‘F U T, 0, 0, 0’,
X = 3676.824 mm, Y = -2015.773 mm, Z = 959.199 mm,
W = -0.085 deg, P = -86.669 deg, R = 150.35 deg,
E1= -79.611 deg
};

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How to transfer/copy settings from one robot or device to another?

You can copy optimized settings, which may include

• robot parameters (including exporter parameters and tex-tmodifyers)
• Feasibility mal parameters
• Specific planner parameters
• Program importer parameters (for some robot manufacturers only)
• Associated devices (external axes)

from one robot (or other device) to several robots (or other devices) of your choice. This is especially helpful if you made some optimizations (late in the project) for one workflow or on robot of many in a workflow and want the others to apply the same settings. If it is early in the project, you simply duplicate the workflow which includes the settings.

Select the device (her the FANUC robot) which was optimized and which settings shall be used by all other FANUC robots.

“Copy device specific parameters to”

Image:

You can select the following parameter sets to be copied to other FANUC robots to be defined subsequently:

• Feasibilty Maps parameters:
• Device Specific Planner parameters:
• Program Exporter Parameters, such as Base frame, speed settings, linear or ptp, sampling a.s.o.
• Program importer parameters:
• associated devices, e.g. which external axis are connected

Image:

Final steps:

1. Select the devices parameters to copy / transfer
2. select the robots to copy them to. note: devices should be of same kind. Do not copy the settings of an external axis to a robot.
3. Press the transfer button in the center and the target devices are shown
4. Add mode devices if wanted
5. Press OK

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coming soon…

Modify the start time of one action

There are 3 methods to define / change the starting time of one action:

CTBC

Modify the start time of several actions

Modify by set delta time between actions

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Add and select actions

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At start, a short introduction to the GUI of the setup editor is provided as quick-start in the next video.

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more examples how to create a new workflow – with increasing complexity.

Also shown:

• how to insert and split actions (which is actually already an outview to 2.2.2)

• how to change priority of robot and external axes

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Creating and naming a new Workflow

With respect to generating workflows, you can

• Create a new workflow (from scratch)
• Copy an existing Workflow and Modify it (most efficient method)
• Import a workflow from another .ap project file

Creating a Workflow from scratch

The steps to create a new workflow are as shown in the image above

1. press <add> button
2. chose “create new”
3. name it
4. select the scene (which contains the correct workpiece / part to be treated and the correct tool)

Optionally assign the workflow to a subgroup of workflows -called section

In the given example, the rotation-table of the propellor is not actively changed / controlled during the treatment. Therefore, set it to active and make sure it is the highest in the hierarchy of robots and axes and conveyors. That way, the other actors, such as robot and external axis are planned to deal with the situation defined by the rotation table – not the other way around. Set the rotation table to passive, in that way it is not actively planned by the software. Instead you define its state next.

The image above shows how to define the pose. The procedure starts with right mouse click in the field and selection of “insert point”. Edit the pose (in this case the orientation) of the

The external axis usually shall be controlled by the robot. Therefore it shall remain “active”. The robot shall be higher in priority than the external axis, since it achieves the dominant part of the motion and the external axis shall only contribute when needed for the robot achieving the coals and preferably move less (than the robot). Therefore, select the robot (click on the left field with the robots name) and increase the priority until it is above the external axis (but below the rotation table).

Copy / Duplicate an existing Workflow

TBC

Import a Workflow from another project

TBC

Editing planning parameters

The planner needs parameters in order to find the solutions which are best for the process and the robot used and to find the best compromises.

Note: if you copy / duplicate or import a workflow, the settings of the original workflow are used. Therfore, you usually do not need to edit the settings.

The image above shows some standard settings after creation of the new workflow.

• Level of logging details: Select how much logging information you want. You can chose settings that log only steps of significant progress and errors. You can also chose settings that log more details, including smaller steps of progress, and warnings and deviations. More detailed logging does allow to easier find “where things start to turn wrong”, not only where the got wrong.
• Planning preference: You can chose between faster planning or faster execution time.
• Shorten workflow duration: You can chose to keep the duration of the workflow as oririginally defined, or allow the planner to shorten the duration. Note: If the robot motion-planner shortens the duration, a subsequent motion-planning attempt may fail due to insufficient time for execution of the program since smallest deviations can lead to the issue that the program would need a few milliseconds more. If you use “shorten duration” increase the cycle time by a few secondss before call the automatic robot motion-planning again.
• Failure handling: You can define how the robot motion planner shall react to unreachable motion-points. Common are e.g. “Skip failures and continue planning”. In the result you will see where the planning failed (and receive an error message in the log you can click on – and often see the situation (e.g. a collision) in 3D) and also how later actions are planned. The opposit setting is “Abort planning as first failure occurs”. If you chose this setting, the planner will immediately stop. You will see the results earlier, but you do will not see if and how the robot program would continue, which can be helpfull to modify the problem case.
• Keept the action`s start time as scheduled: The planner tries to stick to the original timing of the actions and only (delays) if impossible. If timing is chosen well, this is a faster mode for planning, since no efforts for scheduling are required, but the execution time is usually a bit longer.
• Plan linear motions on Path and CartesianPath: Keep (in 99%) unchecked. If the box is not checked, the planner can use a more optimal way to plan with minimum non linear deviations from the linear path, which will however executed as a linear path by the robot.
• Feasibilty map sampling: This parameter can have a significant impact on the planning time in case of a) long paths with plenty control-points and b) if the paths are changed in the setup editor. Once sampled, a path will not be resampled unless the path or the cell changes. “Full feasibilty map sampling” means that an external axis, conveyor, or rotation table is checked for possible solutions along its entire range of motion. “Reduced feasibilty map sampling” and “Minimal feasibilty map sampling” mean that the planner searches only +- x% (will be defined per auxillary axis) around the state. The difference between “reduced” and “minimal” is only relevant if the external axis changes its pose over time. “Reduced” implies that the entire range of values the axis taskes on during the workflow (+-x%) is considered for each way-point of each path. “Minimal” implies that only the actual value taken on by the external axis “at this point” is considered.
• Inverse Kinematics solution selection: You can chose between “Always takes the closest…” and “Always takes the best”. We recommend the closest to the previous, since reconfigurations during air-motions are minimized.
• Eventually allow air motions with contact collision models: Do not use this settings, i.e. not not check the box unless for a quick check, since it will result in potentially unsafe “air-motions”.
• Consider planning time constraints: If you check this box (recommended), more choices pop up and you can limit the planning time for the entire cycle, per air-motion, per action, etc. If not, the planner will try until it runs out of iterations.
• Cost of a robot reorientation / Cost of a tool reorientation / Cost of a singularity: For several processes and for several robots controllers reorientations or singularities are not crucial. You can set how strong “malus” of a motion solution is considered compared to the benefir of achieving a solution for the action to be planned.
• Cost of robot reorientation during air-motion / Cost of a tool reorientation during air-motion. If the part of the robot program dealing with air-motion is exorted in ptp / joint-mode, a reorientation does not matter as it does during the process. In fact, you sometimes even want to reorient in order to unravel the cables. Therefore those are considered independently.
• Planning iterations and smothing iterations. The higher the value, the better and smoother motions might be found which will lead to shorter cycle times. However, the planning time increases. Also increasing planning time might exceed above defined planning-time constraints. Common values ranges from 1000 to 3000 (the latter for very complex / narrow robot motion problems) and 10 to 20 for smoothing.
• Axis wise smoothing and more: TBC
• Time resolution: Set e.g. to 0.02 and the planner checks 50 times per second for possible collisions. If the speed of the robot motion (e.g. at the TCP) is 2.5m/seconds, the tests are performed all 50mm. The minimum distance between robot/tool/part and the environmant and the surplus dimension of the ACM (air collison model) needs to be larger than those 50mm. If you have faster motions or very small tools or part or other structures (such as needles), lower the time resolution.
• Parallelize segments collision checking: Check is several segments shall be tested parallel or sequential.

Those settings are however not the correct ones for the given process. Better fitting path planner settings are presented next.

More case relevant parameter settings. The main difference are:

• Consider planning time constraints: set ON
• Reorientations of robot or tool, or singularities musst be avoided, therefore set (the malus / the punishment) to 100%
• Reduce the time resolution to 0.02 seconds.

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