R12 Robot Manual page 3
1. INTRODUCTION
The R12, firefly is a revolute robot arm of the vertically articulated format. This is the format
which most closely resembles the human arm and so its parts are named after the human
arm. t is more versatile than other formats but the drawback is that backlash and compliance
in each joint are added together joint by joint. Firefly has a nominal reach of 500mm i.e. it is
500 mm from the shoulder joint to the wrist, plus another 100 mm or so for the hand,
depending on the "end effector" fitted. Firefly is driven by stepping motors in micro steps of
0.18 degrees per step resulting after gearing in a nominal resolution of 0.1mm or better at the
end effector. f fitted the pneumatic gripper is operated by compressed air from 3 to 7 bar.
This may be supplied by a compressor supplied with the set, or from another air supply.
The R12 robot system comprises 3 main units:- the robot, the controller, the user supplied
computer or terminal. The computer is used to program the controller. Once programmed the
controller will run the robot independently without the need for the terminal or computer but it
is a good idea to leave a low cost terminal connected while the robot is in use.
OVERVIEW
The controller controls all movement of the robot. As the controller may be both reading
sensors and signals from and controlling associated equipment it follows that all decisions
about robot activity are usually made by the controller which is capable of running without
any host computer. The function of the computer is to (a) program the controller, (b) to copy
(back up) the contents of controller RAM to disk and optionally (c) to perform a supervisory
role sending commands to the controller through the RS232 interface. The function of a
terminal is to display information or questions and for the operator to enter answers or
commands (e.g. part type selection).
To program the controller with a computer you need to run the utility ROBW N.EXE. When
ROBW N is executed it immediately opens a communications window. Once communication
is established all your commands go to the controller not to the computer you are typing on.
Programming the controller involves programming the robot and the interaction with other
equipment. The robot and interfacing are programmed using ROBOFORTH © and FORTH.
There are two manuals, ROBOFORTH covering robot programming and the system manual,
which describes the controller and interfacing. The software manuals are on disk and written
in HTML so you can use dynamic links to see connected concepts. There is also a glossary
on disk, which gives a brief description of every command. Some commands are used only
by ROBW N or are not very useful and these are in the glossary but not in the ROBOFORTH
manual.
All FORTH and ROBOFORTH commands are in UPPER CASE (press caps lock). You can
add commands written in lower case but these would be different commands from those
spelled in upper case.
RoboForth is copyright David N Sands
