New Software Option Solves Robot Integration Challenges

If you’ve ever worked on integrating a machine tool with a robot (or any other type of automation) this information may be of interest to you. Recently we handled some unique customer challenges with an efficient, out-of-the-box solution that we’re now making available as an option for any Okuma machine tool with an HMS Anybus X-gateway, or any Okuma P-series control where an Anybus can be added.

Challenge/Solution #1

I got the call from Bill Powell, Applications Engineer for Morris Great Lakes. He was working on a project for a customer in upstate New York where large shafts were being robot loaded into Okuma LU400s. One requirement from the integrator was that the spindle needed to be oriented for part location. What he soon discovered was that this orientation would be random. The vision system on the robot would take an image of the end of the part, and from there the spindle needed to be oriented the same as the part, which could be anywhere. To overcome this challenge, Bill and I decided to map the unused I/O variables to the physical address range of the Anybus X-gateway device. Using these oVDIN[*] I/O signals, the robot would send Okuma a bit pattern for the spindle orientation parameter value. From there we did a math equation in the part program, coverting the bits into BCD and transferring that number to a common variable. We then set the spindle orientation system variable equal to the common variable. This was done on three LU400s that were all doing the same operation, and the solution worked flawlessly.

Click here to view the code for Solution #1

Challenge/Solution #2

Being familiar with the functionality above, Bill decided to contact me to discuss another project. This time he had a robot feeding two MULTUS U3000s and a Zeiss CMM, running thirty-two different parts using one parametric program. This customer needed a way to send the current part number to the robot, which in turn told the CMM which part number was being run on which machine. Once again, I used some of the available I/O Variables and mapped them to the physical address within the Anybus-X device. With a math equation in the part program, we flipped on the I/O variable outputs, telling the robot in BCD what part number was being run. Once the part number was sent to the robot, we used the inputs in the I/O to verify the robot had the same part number as the machine. That part number was used to tell the CMM which program to run for that particular part.

Click here to view the code for Solution #2

Bill encouraged me to share these stories with our audience because he feels not too many people are aware these types of solutions exist. I’m happy to share them in the hope that others can make use of these approaches. There are a couple things to be aware of if you decide to go down this path:

• This option is software only and intended exclusively for use with Okuma Options using Anybus X-gateway devices.
• This option can be used on any Okuma machine tool equipped with an HMS Anybus X-gateway or any Okuma P-series control where the Anybus can be added.
• Unless special instructions are provided by the Okuma distributor, after :***-8719-9 is added to include this option with your machine tool order, any pre-existing hardwired I/O variables will no longer work, since their physical address will be re-mapped to the MAC-ID of the AB-X device.
• If this option is not yet available for your machine model, simply contact your distributor to submit a RFEQ and get P&D quoted.

I’ll be more than happy to answer any questions in the comments below.

Andy Byrd is Systems Engineer III, Okuma America Corporation.