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Samuel_Bouchard

@Enric can you share your experience?

Kevin_Matthews

For this application, the goal was to make a semi-permanent connection for a demo show. Ideally,  a serial connection would have been the best communication but I was able to use Digital and Analog IO to accomplish just about everything I needed.

For the outputs TO THE CNC:

Chuck: There was  a foot-pedal connection that would work at anytime, regardless of machine in/out of cycle, door open/closed. So I ran a Digital output through a 24V relay mounted in the UR controller housing to the connector in the main control panel of the HAAS. (If I recall, it was connection M19, though not sure).

Cycle start: Again to remain semi-permanent and not loose any usual CNC control, I again wired a digital output through a  24V relay and tied in directly with the HAAS cycle start button. This allowed for the button to be used as normal, or the robot could "emulate" a button press to start cycle.

For the inputs TO THE ROBOT:

I asked the CNC programmed to give me some "cycle done" signal but they weren't sure exactly how to do that, so I got creative and tapped into the stack light. When a machining cycle is done on the HAAS, the stack light goes from solid green to flashing green. This however, is on a 5V circuit. To read this voltage I picked off inline with the stack light green power and Common and ran into an Analog input into the UR. Do to my lengthy wire and my direct pick-off, I had created a voltage divider, so at maximum I received around 2.8~2.9 Volts at my input so the logic in my program would wait for that signal to pass my high threshold, then wait for it to go low again. This way I knew the light had gone from High to Low, telling the robot the "cycle was done".

The door was a bit of a challenge to open with the UR5, it took a little finesse to tune the speed and acceleration such that the door wouldn't "bounce" (as slightly seen in the video) and fault the robot for over torque. The trick was to leave the gripper about 1mm more open then the handle diameter to allow a little movement but not too much. Another trick was to turn the acceleration down but the speed up. This reduced the 'jerk' but still had the momentum to force the spring-roller type assisted door to move at the UR's pace.

Total signals:
Chuck toggle - Digital output to 24V relay
Cycle Start - Digital output to 24V relay
Cycle done - Analog input 'watching' the stack light

Since the HAAS was not outputting any additional signals, the robot was the master as though it was a human operating the machine.