Robotiq parallel 2 finger gripper

WalterPintor 2016-08-22

Hi all,

I have been trying to program a robotic gripper for a couple of days, but I still quite don't manage to make it work fully.

I have been writing the data train proposed in the we site, with every byte as described.port opening (serial), Activation request, opening gripper, closing gripper and closing port.

The thing is, all of them work as independent actions, but the blue led indicator never remains blue.

May I know any suggestions? Any example code I can have a look?

Thanks,
Walter.

Samuel_Bouchard 2016-08-13

Hi @walterpintor what robot, controller and communication protocol are you using?

PierreOlivier_Proulx 2016-08-15

@WalterPintorI Hi Walter, I assume you are using the ModbusRTU interface to communicate with the gripper. The led turns blue when there is an active communication with the gripper. As soon as the communication stops, the led will turns red. This does no mean the gripper is in a faulty state.

The way we typically control the gripper is that we constantly poll the gripper for its state and synchronize its setpoints so the robot and the gripper is in sync.

Tell us what your setup is and we might be in a better situation to help you out.

WalterPintor 2016-08-20

The led turns blue when there is an active communication with the gripper. As soon as the communication stops, the led will turns red. This does no man the gripper is in a faulty state.

This was a great relief to know.

@PierreOlivier_Proulx

My set-up:
A 7kg payload KUKA iiwa collaborative robot, connecting a robotiq gripper (85mm opening).I'm using serial comm after a modification to the gripper cable using a rs485 converter. This modification I believe was done to enable the gripper being controlled in our other collaborative UR10.

KUKA iiwa uses Java to program. How to synchronize the states of the gripper to define the force, speed and opening accurately?

If you need more info, I will be happy to provide you my program.

I would very much appreciate your support.

Walter

PierreOlivier_Proulx 2016-08-24

@WalterPintor I think that usually, the gripper is sold with a EtherCat Universal Controller. You can find attached a guide that explains how to integrate the gripper.

If you really need to integrate the gripper without using a controller, I suggest that you find a modbus library for the programming language you use. I think that java is used on Kuka controllers. In the gripper's manual, you will find the register addresses that need to be read/write in order to read the gripper's status or to control it.