Locator Tutorial: Setting up Locator to work with UR robots
Users are strongly recommended to read Locator Tutorial: Introduction prior to installation of specific robot interface
Contents
1. Prerequisites
Prior to setup, please ensure that your UR controller meets the following criteria:
- CB3.1 or E-series Controller
- System version 3.2 and higher
Click Menu -> About to verify your controller System Version (see figure below):
2. UR Controller Setup
2.1 Set IP Address of Ethernet Port
The first step of the process is to configure the IP address of the Robot Controller.
Using the Teach Pendant, press Menu -> System -> Network:
Amend the IP Address and Subnet Mask to match the network configuration of the Vision Controller running Locator and click Apply:
3. Locator UR Cap Setup
The Locator UR Interface is available as an URCap and three basic program templates. All of these files need to be copied to the Robot Controller.
As the first step, URCap needs to be installed. Extract the Locator URCap archive (.zip file) to the USB stick and plug it into the Teach Pendant.
Press Menu -> System -> URCaps:
Select the Locator URCap file and click Open:
Locator URCap should appear in the list of active URCaps. As usual, the restart is needed in order to enable proper functionality of newly installed URCap.
After Restart, Locator URCap should be ready for use:
As the next step copy LocatorTemplate.ur[ from USB Stick to the Robot Controller:
4. Calibration
Robot Camera Calibration is a crucial step in Locator configuration. Accurate calibration guarantees that object positions will be calculated directly in Robot Base coordinates.
Photoneo Robot Camera Calibration for URCap is configured to search for the sphere object, which radius is known. Usually, Ping-Pong or Snooker ball is used for this purpose. Sphere object can be attached to the gripper using peg, suction cup two-finger gripper or another method. The pose of the ping pong ball is not important (doesn't need to be in axis) the only condition is that is should be mounted firmly so it does not move during transitions between waypoints and it is visible from the scanner in each waypoint.
NOTE: Tool Point setting does not affect the calibration process therefore it is not necessary to clear tool pose configuration before starting the calibration.
4.1 Robot - Camera Calibration
Mount the Scanner firmly, ensure that the scene is properly captured from the final scanner position and open the Calibration tab on the Installation page:
As the first step set the IP address of Vision Controller and press the Connect button to establish a connection to the Calibration Tool:
As the second step of the calibration insert and set Sphere radius (Standard Ping Pong Ball = 20mm, Snooker Ball = 26.25mm):
The third step requires Scanner ID to be set. Both old & new notations are supported. (Old notation example: 1703001 / New notation example: 2018-03-001-LC3)
You are now ready to start adding calibration points. Hold the Enable button and manually or use the Jog menu to move the robot to the first calibration pose. The recommended procedure is to cover all four corners of the scanning volume/bin + two positions in the center of the scanning volume. Change the orientation of the tool in all axes to achieve a wider range of input values.
Press the Capture button to trigger the scan and store the current calibration position. Repeat the same procedure for all 6 calibration points:
NOTE: If calibration ball has not been detected properly or the calibration pose is too close to existing one a popup window notifies the user that calibration point needs to be changed and recaptured!
If all 6 points have been added successfully it is a time to calculate calibration matrix and store result to the scanner. Press Calibrate to finalize the calibration procedure:
NOTE: If calibration error is too high it is necessary to repaet the whole calibration with different calibration waypoints!
4.2 Tool Calibration
After finalizing Robot Camera calibration the Tool Point needs to be properly configured.
Select Menu -> Setup -> Frames and select the tool frame you want to use within your program.
Set the X,Y,Z coordinates which denote the position of the tool point of current gripper with respect to the flange:
5. Runtime
5.1 Reteach Application poses
Once the Robot-Camera and Tool calibration processes have been completed, you can proceed to re-teaching the application poses. Prior to starting this process, please ensure that you have selected the correct User and Tool Frame.
Go through the LOC_SINGLE or LOC_MULTIPLE programs and reteach all J P[X] poses using the standard procedure as shown in the figure below:
5.2 Run Locator
You are now ready to run the program. Switch to T1 mode and select 10% speed; this option is recommended for safety reasons.
Ensure that you are ready to stop the motion execution immediately if something goes wrong.
Select the LOC_SINGLE/LOC_MULTIPLE program or another program which you have prepared your own.
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If everything is working correctly, you should that the scan has been triggered, the result from Locator has been transmitted to the Robot Controller and the robot is approaching the object.