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Controlling an Industrial Arm using MACH3
« on: January 02, 2011, 11:45:37 AM »
Hi there,

I was able to successfully drive this robotic arm using MACH3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OR7CKAv3Wm4

My question now is that since this is not the typical linear X-Y system, but more of a radial one, what would be the easiest way to tackle this coordinate system? Can it be done?

What I have as an input is a text file with X-Y-Rotation coordinates for electric components. I want to generate G Code from this text file and have the robot pick passive components (resistors and caps) from reels and then place them on the board according to the X-Y-Rot coordinates from the files. Of course, there must be some kind of transformation here which I wonder if I need to make in the TXT-GCode generator or is there a place inside of MACH3 to generate this transformation if certain robot parameters are known?

Thanks for your input! Best regards,

JIQ

Offline BR549

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Re: Controlling an Industrial Arm using MACH3
« Reply #1 on: January 02, 2011, 12:06:04 PM »
Mach does not do JOINT kenematics so any positioning you do with a JOINT You will have to do the math to convert it to a gcode that mach can understand. XYZ are linear and ABC can be either linear or polar.

A simple way would be to manually jog the robot to each known component position and record the Axis positions. THEN when a component is called you will know WHERE to send it.

Just a thought, (;-) TP
Re: Controlling an Industrial Arm using MACH3
« Reply #2 on: January 02, 2011, 12:23:30 PM »
I thought about doing the jogging thing, so apparently that is the way to go. It sounds painful, but way less than placing the components by hand. Plus once it is coded, I can do an infinity of boards without added effort.

Now, I know how to jog X (Side arrows), Y (up/down arrows) and Z (Page Up/Down). What I have never figured out is how to jog the fourth axis A. I tried a bunch of keys, but none of them are responding. What could I be missing here? Thanks for the discussion!

Offline BR549

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Re: Controlling an Industrial Arm using MACH3
« Reply #3 on: January 02, 2011, 12:42:36 PM »
You need to setup the hotkeys for those functions. OR just use the jog popout control panel.   (TAB)
Re: Controlling an Industrial Arm using MACH3
« Reply #4 on: January 02, 2011, 05:05:19 PM »
Hi Avayan, don't know if you know JCODE.

http://www.machsupport.com/plugins.php

It will record all the point you teach it and will output Gcode .

Jeff






Offline Tweakie.CNC

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Re: Controlling an Industrial Arm using MACH3
« Reply #5 on: January 18, 2011, 11:45:41 AM »
Never done it but I have read that many industrial robots are programed by the 'teach' method in preference to getting involved in the trig. and maths.

Tweakie.
PEACE
Re: Controlling an Industrial Arm using MACH3
« Reply #6 on: November 19, 2012, 02:24:19 PM »
Mach 3 for Robotic Arm...maybe it is possible.
if you are using a 6 axis Industrial Robot you would need a 5 axis post for that Robot, eg, Mastercam + Robotmaster.

Offline Tweakie.CNC

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Re: Controlling an Industrial Arm using MACH3
« Reply #7 on: November 20, 2012, 02:38:38 AM »
Just a note for others that follow - this thread relates http://www.machsupport.com/forum/index.php/topic,9758.0.html

Tweakie.
PEACE
Re: Controlling an Industrial Arm using MACH3
« Reply #8 on: November 21, 2012, 12:33:22 PM »
Ok, that's for pick and place, how about gcode for Mach controlled robot? I was thinking using 'Mach 3 6 axis screen' then have the XYZABC axes to run in angular, then generate 5 axis gcode ---> to 6 axis robot post---> run the robot..