The model of the robot I use is EPSON LS3-4013. This article records the connection between the controller of the robot arm and the computer, and the complete process of controlling the robot arm with the computer program.
1 USB connection between computer and robotic arm
Connect the USB to the PC port of the computer and the controller. In the EPSON RC+ software, select Settings->Computer and controller communication. The default includes USB communication, click connect to connect the computer and the controller
In addition to supporting USB connection, the controller also supports a variety of other connection methods, such as Ethernet connection (see the accompanying manual for details). I've been unsuccessful with Ethernet connections myself, so I've been using USB
2 Troubleshooting:
After the connection was completed, the following error occurred. I took a screenshot of the explanation of the error in the manual.
After checking, the problem I encountered here was that the internal battery of the motor was out of power. After replacing the motor battery, perform the following operations:
1 Tools -> Command Window, open the command line
Input: encreset 1,2,3,4
Reset the encoder, the number behind it represents the joint of the robot arm to be reset. Here I reset all joints 1,2,3,4
2 Tools->Controller select reset controller, restart the controller to save the configuration
3 Calibrate the zero position of the robot
After restarting the motors, a zero point calibration of the robot is required. The zero point calibration steps are as follows:
In Robot Manager, start the motors, and unlock all axes. The robot can now be calibrated manually
1 Align the first joint (X) of the robot with the screw directly behind the base
2 Align the second joint (Y) of the robot with the groove on the base
3 The third joint (Z) of the robot is located 75mm above the robot base, and the error is within about 2mm. You need to hold down the unlock switch when moving the Z axis
4 Align the fourth joint (U) of the robot with the mark on the top of the rotating shaft.
After the calibration is completed, enter
calpIs 0, 0, 0, 0
calib 1, 2, 3, 4 on the command line
to save the calibration
4 Robot Programming
EPSON manipulator programming uses SPEL+ language. There is a complete description of the language syntax and robot API in the compiler's documentation section. Here we implement a simple program for a robot to move between multiple points.
Robot teaching:
Robot teaching is to manually set the target point for the robot to move. You can open the teaching interface in Robot Manager -> Stepping Teaching
(the office computer is not connected to the Internet, so you can’t send screenshots, and you can only take pictures here)
. After turning on the motor, you can manually control the movement of each axis of the robot on the teaching interface. Here it is recommended to directly select the movement distance from long distance to short distance, and the continuous movement can easily exceed the range of motion of the robot joints. In the range column, you can manually adjust the maximum moving range of each axis of the robot. Once the arm has been moved to the target point it can be held at that point. The point data is saved in the robot1.pts point data file by default. We can also manually modify the point data file to set the teaching point
In the example, we save the points P0, P1, P2, and in the following program we realize the JUMP movement of the robot between each point (lift the Z axis during the movement)
FUNCTION main
If MOTOR = Off Then MOTOR On
Call MoveRobot
Fend
Function MoveRobot
Do
Jump P0
Jump P1
Jump P2
Loop
Fend
Program interpretation:
After uploading the program, the robot will call the main method in the program. Here in the first sentence of the main method we turn on the motor when the motor is off and call the MoveRobot method.
In the MoveRobot method the robot is cyclically moving between three points
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