Creating from backup - XYZ External Axis

neil

The physical set-up of the system is an IRC5 controller connected to a IRB2400. The IRB2400 is attached to a 3DOF gantry crane. An additional drive module is used to control gantry crane motion. The system is set-up so that a single motion task moves both robot and 4 axes of gantry (X master, X slave, Y and Z). I have attached the backup of this system, with a test program that has been run on the real system with no problems.

The problem I am having is with re-creating this set-up in RobotStudio. I can create the system from backup with no problem in RS. However when I create a new station, I DO NOT get the normal warning to select library file for external axis mechanism:

"There is no library defined for the type 'GEN_KIN'. You must manually search for the library"

So when the system starts up, I only have the IRB2400 with no mechanism representing the external axis.

Any ideas why this might be the case?

I believe some changes may have been made to the MOC file, but I am not sure exactly what these are or why RS does not give the option to select a 'GEN_KIN' model for the external axes. I am using RS 5.09.

Regards,
Neil


2007-08-20_093406_24_52893_MS_XYZC_Z_Backup_2007-08-16.zip


neil2007-8-20 9:35:43

Henrik Berlin

Hi Neil,

I tried your system using RS 5.09 SP1. When I start it up, I do get the possibility to point out a library for the GEN_KIN model. But if I press Cancel, then the system is shut down just as you describe. The reason is that RobotStudio is designed to show all mechanisms that are present in the system. That is why you must manually design a mechanism that matches your gantry crane using the mechanism modeler of RobotStudio. Unfortunately, RobotStudio cannot by itself figure out what kind of gantry that corresponds to the GEN_KIN, that has to be pointed out by the user. So, please try to model the gantry in RobotStudio, save it as a library, and point it out next time you start the system.

Kind regards,

Henrik

neil

Thanks for the reply.

I do already have a mechanism described for this system. The problem has now been resolved. When I restored the system from backup, using RS Online, I then got the option to select the GEN_KIN library file.

I have one further query:

The mechanism I have set up in RS, which represents the external axis, has only 3 axes - 1 in X, 1 in Y and 1 in Z direction. However the real gantry mechanism is configured to have 4 axes (2 in X for master and slave, 1 in Y and 1 in Z). The target points set in the real world appear below the ground in the RS worlds (as shown in the previously attached backup).

Will the difference in the number of joints between real and RS mechanisms have any effect on the target points? We are currently trying to de-bug the real system and I would like to eliminate that RS is causing the problem...

Thanks,
Neil

Henrik Berlin

Hi Neil,

Configuring a robot systems to work with a gantry is highly non-trivial task. I would recommend you to get in touch with ABB technical support to get some help with this issue. They can take a closer look at the configuration of the external axis.

Kind regards,