Pallet Sequence programming

tylermartin · August 2016

I am trying to write a program for my UR to take parts from a plastic molding press and load them into a bin with 30 compartments, I'm having a little trouble figuring out all the steps to make a functioning pallet sequence and I wondered if you could help at all. I have dual grippers installed so my pattern is 15 points and the other 15 spots are filled by gripper 2 at the same time as gripper 1

So far I have pattern list with all my points in it then the pallet sequence is after that:

-PalletSequence
-Approach_1
-PatternPoint_1
- (I am unsure what to add here but I want the sequence to drop the parts in the compartment of the bin and go back to pick the next part from the press, then continue to the next point of my pattern.)
- rq_open_and_wait (gripper_1,gripper_2)
-Wait:0.01
-Exit
>MoveJ
-Clear_dunnage
-Home
[] write_output_integer_register(10,70)

have you done part packaging like this? is there something I am missing or will the program step through one pattern point at a time?

Grady_Turner · August 2016

@tylermartin Yes the list option does advance like the other pattern options. The list option is useful for asymmetrical patterns. You need to teach all the points, but you only need to program what to do at each point once (Pallet sequence).

tylermartin · October 2016

We have completed this project and it is running well now! I did end up using the box feature for this and it worked out very well. Our program communicates with a Molding machine to know when to pick parts from it and then packages them into a 30 compartment bin. After the bin is empty the table it is sitting on tilts down and the robot pushes the bin down to a roller conveyor where it rolls away, then a powered conveyor turns on to load a new bin onto the tilt table and the robot orients the bin and goes back to the molding machine to get the first part again.

@matthewd92 gave some good options to try other than the UR wizard but in the end we just used the Wizard and it has worked very well for us!

Here is the video of how it works!

tylermartin · October 2016

Tyler_Berryman said:

@tylermartin Awesome video! Are the cable management sleeves an off the shelf product? Your robot setup looks really clean!

The Cable management sleeves were custom made for this by a company in Barrie Ontario, it is a neoprene sleeve like a wet suit... We plan to take our next UR snorkeling.

Grady_Turner · August 2016

@tylermartin The pallet function relies on a loop for iteration through the pattern. So a simple example structure of a program to 15 pick parts from one location and palletize them would like:

MoveL
Home
Loop 15 times
MoveL
Part_Pick_point
Intermediate_point //necessary point(s) to get from the machine to the pallet
Pallet
Pattern: Square //Program these points at the anchor position, which is selected when "Pallet Sequence" is highlighted. This is critical for offsets
1st corner
2nd corner
3rd corner
4th corner
Pallet Sequence //choose your anchor point accordingly
Approach //approach the bin "nests"
Pattern_Point //point at which you'd like to do your "work," in this case dropping parts
Gripper open
Exit //Exit the pallet, usually can be the same as approach point

If you do NOT have a loop for the pallet function, it will just go to the first location and that will be it. The pallet must have an external loop to iterate through the pattern. Does this make sense?

tylermartin · August 2016

@Grady_Turner it does make sense for the most part, if "Loop 15 times" something you can write in with the loop function +15? I set up my pattern as points so there is 15 separate points, will that be the same as a square pattern for going to the next pattern?

Grady_Turner · August 2016

@tylermartin Little confused by your questions. The Loop function has 3 options: loop forever, loop a certain amount of times, or loop until a condition is met. In the example above the second option would be used and it would loop 15 times exactly. In most pallet applications this is sufficient, and you make the number of loops equal to the number of nests in the pallet.

Can you elaborate on the second question? I know you mentioned using two grippers and dropping two parts at a time, so you will need to be careful how you teach the corners.

Alexandre_Pare · August 2016

@Grady_Turner
I think what @tylermartin means is that he programmed all 15 pick points. The pallet square tool makes you point to the 4 corners of the square pattern and figure out the rest of the points mathematically. So you don't have to teach all positions to the robot. Does this make sense?

tylermartin · August 2016

@Grady_Turner I mean that I did not use the box function to set up my pattern I used the List function and set the 15 points. I just wanted to know if the list option advances to the next pattern point the same way a box or square function would?

Etienne_Samson · October 2016

@tylermartin nice application and awesome beat in your video

Samuel_Bouchard · October 2016

Kudos @tylermartin for a great application! Thanks a lot for closing the loop on the advices received in the past to show what the winning solution was!