Combination of cam and robot functionality

The software module offers the option of combining cams and robot functionalities. If contours are to be traced using tabulated or online‑calculated cams, gantry robots are typically used. Curve profiles are determined and traveled in a synchronized manner for all axes positioned at 90° to each other.

The cam and robot functionalities can be combined by entering the position setpoints of the cam, which are usually sent directly to the axes, as Cartesian master positions with X, Y, Z space coordinates and RotZ, RotY, RotX orientations in the software module. As in linear or circular interpolation, the robot controller performs the inverse kinematic transformation, among other things, in order to determine the corresponding axis progressions and accordingly controls the joint axes of any kinematics. As a result, the robot's TCP travels the required contour. Not only can the cam be executed in the BASE or USER coordinate system in a static environment, but also in a moving USER coordinate system.

The position setpoints of the cam can originate, for example, from virtual MOVI‑C^® axes using MOVIKIT^® MultiMotion Camming or from custom formulas executed application‑side in the HighPriority task.

For more information on combining cam and robot functionality, refer to the application example Combination of electronic cam and robot functionality.