Receiving Data From UR5e and Decoding

jfalk 2020-06-30

I am working on a project with a UR5e and we are looking to receive some position data and force data from the arm via a python program written on a ethernet connected PC. I can connect to the arm just fine and I can receive the data over port 30003, but I am not sure where to go next. The data appears to be in a hex string format, see attached file, but I cant manage to decode it into any meaningful data. If needed I can attached some of my python code as an example of what I have tried if needed. Am I trying to get data from the correct port? Is the data in a hex string? Is there a better way to get this data from the robot? All help is appreciated, let me know if there is a better place to post this question. Thanks in advance.

matthewd92 2020-07-01

It’s packed as a buffer string. You will need to unpack the data. UR provides the data packet structure on their website. Check out https://www.universal-robots.com/articles/ur-articles/remote-control-via-tcpip/ there is an excel spreadsheet you can download that will show how it’s packed.

jelms 2020-07-01

@jfalk That is the real-time data on port 30003 and is a fixed binary format. The recommended method is to use RTDE data via port 30004. See https://www.universal-robots.com/articles/ur-articles/real-time-data-exchange-rtde-guide/ There is an example python program for download at the bottom.

jfalk 2020-07-01

Thank you both for your replys, I think we may have found the solution!