I want to be able to move my whole robot from setup 1, put it to work on another machine (setup2) , and then put it back at the machine of setup 1, calibrate the robot with 1 or 2 waypoints, and run the whole setup 1 program again without having to change it. Is this possible in any way? Because the company would like to be able to move the robot between machines. I figured I could try to do this by setting feature planes, but only movements L and P  are supported with features and are much slower than movement J type. Thanks in advance.

Emile Derache
Student @ KU Leuven
Graduation project with Niko (Belgium)

You are able to do this by keeping your moves relative to a feature. movej should only be used for moves in free space where collision is unlikely. you could also fixture the robot base in a way that could be more repeatable using something like ball locks or pins.

I realize that this is a slightly old thread, but in case someone else has a similar problem in the future, here are my 5 cents:

I was working on a similar task with a Universal Robot during my internship recently and I agree with roehlkk's post. The key word to solving a variable environment is relative movements. What I've done with a succesful result is somehow localize the object, calculate a new custom origo and then make movements relative to it with the pose_trans(pose0, pose1) command. Be careful not to mix up different coordinate systems. As for localization, I tried two methods, both of them functional.

• Freedrive localize - Make the operator drag the tool to the object. Make sure the tool tcp is defined correctly, and, depending on your problem, it might be useful to force a certain axis-angle.
• Scan localize - Make the robot assumes a basic start position (could be defined by the operator), and then use sensors to scan and accurately find relevant positions and angle relative to the object.

Although I have not tried this, and I am learning how to setup my Robotic Cell, this 'Relative' positioning for my moves seems key to follow.  I appreciate Trj7ca and the pieces of info for me to learn and follow.  Giving me the correct terms to look up and learn are so important to finding solutions.