willburg Posted August 9, 2011 Report Share Posted August 9, 2011 Hello, We want to start a new project. The plan is to build a delta robot for some simple task, all the coordinates are given so there is no need vision applications. Is it possible with a Unitronics plc? We've been in contact with Sigmatek but it isn't the brand for us. [dont like the programming software] Does the Unitronics software support the delta Kinematics? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MVP 2021 Joe Tauser Posted August 10, 2011 MVP 2021 Report Share Posted August 10, 2011 It depends on the number of axes you're trying to control and whether or not there will be circular interpolation involved. You'll have to write your own interface using the Protocol block. I've done this with a two-axis "robot", but all it had to do was go to an X-Y coordinate. It didn't matter how it got there. I stored the X and Y coordinates in a data table and stepped through the table, triggering a Protocol Send block for each movement. Post more details of your application. Joe T. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
willburg Posted August 10, 2011 Author Report Share Posted August 10, 2011 Thank you for your reply. This is the system what everybody in our bushiness uses LINKWe want to do the same with 1 gripper on a delta robot. The pattern of the tray is given and the position of the pot is also given,so no troubles of position. The problem is to move the delta robot smooth from A to B. Can a Unitronics plc make the desired calculations? And what is the best way to begin? This is the Sigmatek delta robot working with the desired movement only in reversed action. LINK Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MVP 2014 Simon Posted August 11, 2011 MVP 2014 Report Share Posted August 11, 2011 I would say most forum users (myself included) would not know what a Delta Robot was. Here is a link: http://www.sigmatek-automation.us/pdf/eng_delta-robot.pdf If you are planning to drive the actuators directly, polar coordintate calculations would be required for the kinematics. There are no built-in kinematic functions in the Unitornics PLCs, but they do have a limited amount of floating point variables and a full set of trigonometric functions. Depending on your machine setup you may be able to store all the desired trajectories as lookup tables rather than generate them on the fly. This would allow you to calcuate the trajectories offline on a PC and just transfer the final data to the PLC data tables. Either way this would not be a simple project. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MVP 2021 Joe Tauser Posted August 14, 2011 MVP 2021 Report Share Posted August 14, 2011 My experience has been that the acceleration and deceleration are set in the robot itself, which should take care of "smooth operation". You'll need the protocol guide of the robot to determine what commands to issue to it; something like POSITION X,Y and MOVE. If it's as simple as that, then the program won't be too bad. Before you try to drive it with a PLC, try moving it by typing commands into Hyperterminal. If you can do it from a terminal then you can definitely do it from the PLC. Joe T. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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