Specifications

R-I/O Connector

The RC700 series/RC800 series robot controller has an R-I/O connector that is used to connect the real-time I/O trigger input signals. An R-I/O input is a special input interface that monitors the signals at higher speed than the standard I/O inputs. There are two trigger input signals on each of the Control Unit and Drive Units. For example, set the transmission type sensor so that it reacts when the robot passes the camera acquisition point and use the R-I/O connector so that the R-I/O input is detected at the moment shutter clicked.

For details on hardware (connection connectors and circuits), refer to the following manual:

"Robot Controller Manual - I/O Remote Settings"

Real-time I/O commands

There are special commands provided for use the real-time I/O. The following are basic descriptions of these commands.

For details, refer to the following manual.

"SPEL+ Language Reference"

LatchEnable

This command is used to enable or disable the latch function of the robot position information with the real-time I/O. When LatchEnable On executes, it enables the robot position latch function using the trigger input signals connected to the R-I/O connector. After the latch is enabled, it is possible to latch the number of consecutive latches (up to 4 times) specified by SetLatch. To repeatedly latch the robot position, execute LatchEnable Off and then execute LatchEnable On again. To use the command repeatedly, it requires 60 ms minimum interval for each command processing time. It is not necessary to consider the command executing time.

SetLatch

Specifies the real-time input port that you connected the trigger input signal to, the input logic, and the number of consecutive latches. The table below shows the port numbers you can specify. Specify the port number that the robot using R-I/O is connected. If the other ports are specified, an error will occur. One robot cannot wait for the trigger signals from multiple ports.

RC700 series

		Point	Port number
Control Unit	INPUT	2 points	24, 25
Drive Unit 1	INPUT	2 points	56, 57
Drive Unit 2	INPUT	2 points	280, 281
Drive Unit 3	INPUT	2 points	312, 313

RC800 series

		Point	Port number
Control Unit	INPUT	4 points	24, 25, 26, 27

Execution of SetLatch requires approximately 40 ms for processing.

LatchState Function

This function confirms whether the selected robot's position information is completely latched. After it confirms that the latch has been done, it acquires the position information using the LatchPos Function.

LatchPos Function

This function returns the robot position information latched by the trigger input. Executing the LatchPos Function needs approximately 15 ms for processing.

To return Tool 0 and Arm 0 positions: Set the WithoutToolArm parameter when using the "Picture on the fly" application.

RobotPos Vision Sequence Property

When acquiring the parts place position by using the RobotPlacePos result, set the robot position in image capturing to this property before acquiring the RobotPlacePos result.

Also, set the RobotPos sequence property to set the robot coordinates of the image acquisition position to calculate the part position when you use a mobile camera system.

In any of the above cases, the system can calculate the correct part position by using the position acquired by LatchPos Function in this property.

For details, refer to the following manual.

"Vision Guide 8.0 Properties and Results Reference"

Latch accuracy

The following is the theoretical sampling time used to latch the position information.

				Sampling time [μsec]
Control Unit			4-axis robot	32
			6-axis robot	32
Drive Unit *			4-axis robot	32
			6-axis robot	21

• RC700 series only

You can get a rough idea of latch accuracy from the robot speed (parts moving speed) at the latch trigger input and the sampling time. For real accuracy, you must have a margin on the required accuracy because time delay and variation in the hardware may affect. The latch accuracy will improve as the robot moves slower at the trigger input.

Latched position accuracy [mm] = Robot speed [mm/sec] × Sampling time [sec]