Blending

Blending is the rounding of the corners of a motion path. Blending ensures a continuous transition of the path and the path speed toward the next path segment. Blending protects the mechanical components and reduces cycle time. Without blending, the kinematic model would stop at the target pose and then start its motion toward the next target point.

Blending to the new path segment starts as soon as the tool is close enough to the last target pose. For each path segment, the SRL program defines the distance (blending distance) from one path segment to the next. However, this blending distance is limited to a percentage of the length of the new path segment on which blending is performed. The default value for this limitation percentage is 50%. However, the value can be increased to up to 99%.

This means the actual blending distance (blending distance_effective) results from the smaller value (minimum) of the two variables, limited by the remaining distance at the time if the new path segment is taken over late (e.g. because of a wait point).

Note that the blending distance parameterized in an SLR motion command or modally before the SRL motion command by means of SET_BLENDING_PARA refers to the blending on the path segment to the target point of the SRL motion command, i.e. spatially to the target point of the last SRL motion command. If, for example, in a pick-and-place application, there is blending from a long horizontal movement to a short vertical movement and the blending distance is limited by the limitation percentage to, for example, 50% of the short length of the vertical movement, the blending in the return movement can be greater than in the outward movement with the same parameterization, because of the greater length of the horizontal movement. If the resulting blending distance should be the same in the outward and return movements, it may be useful to increase the limitation percentage.

[1]	Linear segment to the first target position
[2]	Target position of the second linear segment
[3]	Set blending distanceTARGET
[4]	Segment length * limitation percentage
[5]	Blending distanceeffective
[6]	Resulting symmetrical blending curve