Hello!
I have been doing some digging here in the forums and have not found quite what I am looking for.
My current project is to try and get a second Zaxis on a gantry so that both move synchronously along the Yaxis as well as allow for dual gripper behavior (swap at source and swap at destination).
The process modeling is set up correctly, but I am struggling with setting up the correct robot behavior. Does anyone have an idea of how to get something like this setup?
For this, I have been testing on the Gudel ZP 6 and have duplicated the geometry as well as link behavior of ‘Link2’ with a feeder and 2x process nodes.
I am not sure at this point how to control the second Z axis as the robot controller only seems to accept one flangeframe. I am also worried that adding a second robot controller would cause control conflict. I have started dipping into the kinematics python but I do not have the experience to know how much of it is a check and how much of it is defining joint motion or how to toggle between.
Please let me know if anything needs to be clarified and thanks in advance!
we have tried something similar and where not able to make it work
I had to create a second gantry and attach the common axis and hid the rest of the body, then we programed the differences and synchronized the programs
Do you remember what you tried in the past before switching to the second gantry? My thought was that the robot knows how to use the dual gripper automatically so that this logic could somehow translate to use Z2 instead of the usual end effector frame. I do not know how to modify the python or otherwise set this line of thinking up.
I did try adding a second gantry in the same spot but could not synchronize the motion very well with one being controlled via process link and the other via robot program. Would you be able to share any of the setup/code that you used and go into more detail on how they worked together without fighting for priority on the Y-axis?
I was able to find more detail on the program synchronize statement within the programming tab which helps a lot to make it look like the gantries are working together. Basically having a sync statement at the start of an executing pick/place statement and having a separate process node receive a signal to trigger a move program of gantry 2 with the same sync statement.
However, I still dont have a solution to make the 2 gantries pick from inbound, pick from middle process, place at middle process, and place at outbound then cycling again. Were you ever able to program in that behavior?
Is that even possible with the process tab or will I have to program in everything manually?
i originally tried creating my own gantry and adding the additional axis, but us not I could not get it to function properly, I needed to connect the controller for the tracking pick feature off a conveyor.
that is why I created the second robot robot and attached it to the first robot and added the second controller.
that was enough for my process after I synced the programs
SOLVED!
Please see the attached file. I have created an “H-Style” (tandem) gantry system by overlaying 2 gantries as epeagle suggested (Thanks again!). This system works by use of the “Program Synchronize Statement” from the robot program options which forces each gantry to wait at Sync A, B, C, etc. until the other gantry is ready at the same sync statement. By modifying the recorded pick and place statements generated by the process links you can fit any number of actions between when a product is picked and placed without disrupting automatic process flow.
Layout v1.1 Shareable.vcmx (632.6 KB)
Please let me know if you have any questions about what you find within this layout!
