Master-Control Communication Setup

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This guide shows you how to set up Master-Control communication with a TM (Techman) robot.

Prerequisites

Before you perform any operation on the TM robot, please make sure that the following requirements have been met:

  1. The controller software (TMflow) version is 1.84 or above.

    The Master-Control program currently does not support communication with the robot controller with a version of TMFlow2.

  2. The versions of Mech-Vision and Mech-Viz are 1.6.1 or above.

  3. You have known the IP address of the robot, e.g., 192.168.2.10.

Get Control of the Robot

There are two ways to control the robot, and you can choose either one according to the actual situation.

Control the Robot via the Controller

  1. Connect the monitor, keyboard, and mouse to the controller through the controller’s USB and HDMI ports accordingly.

  2. Click tm interface program icon1, and wait for the corresponding robot ID to appear in the window.

    tm interface program getcontrol1

  3. Connect the robot in any of the following ways:

    • Double-click the robot icon

    • Double-click the robot ID

    • Double-click the IP address of the robot

      tm interface program getcontrol2

  4. Enter your ID and password in the Log in window, and click OK. You can use the default ID administrator to log in without a password.

    tm interface program getcontrol3

  5. Click Get Control to control the robot.

    tm interface program getcontrol4

    If the robot is controlled successfully, the window will be as shown below.

    tm interface program getcontrol5

Control the Robot via the IPC

Connect Hardware

Plug the Ethernet cable into the LAN port of the robot controller to connect it with the IPC.

tm setup instructions lan

Set the IP Address of the IPC

Set the IP addresses of the IPC and robot to be in the same subnet. Or else the robot cannot be connected successfully.

Control the Robot with the IPC

  1. Download and install the TMflow software on your IPC from Techman Robot’s website.

    If the robot brand is Omron TM, please download TMFlow 1.8.4 or above from the Omron official website and complete the upgrade process.

  2. Open TMflow, click tm interface program icon1, and wait for the corresponding robot ID to appear in the window.

    tm interface program getcontrol1

  3. Connect the robot in any of the following ways:

    • Double-click the robot icon

    • Double-click the robot ID

    • Double-click the IP address of the robot

      tm interface program getcontrol2

  4. Enter your ID and password in the Log in window, and click OK. You can use the default ID administrator to log in without a password.

    tm interface program getcontrol3

  5. Click Get Control to control the robot.

    tm interface program getcontrol4

    If the robot is controlled successfully, the window will be as shown below.

    tm interface program getcontrol5

Load the Program Files to the Robot

The example below uses an IPC to load the program files, and the method to load the program files with a controller is similar.

Prepare the Files

  1. Plug the USB flash drive into the USB port of the IPC.

  2. Rename the USB flash drive to TMROBOT, or else the USB flash drive cannot be recognized by the robot controller.

  3. Copy the program files to the USB flash drive. The files are stored in Mech-Center/Robot_Server/Robot_FullControl/tm in the installation directory where Mech-Vision and Mech-Viz are installed.

    Please copy the entire TM_Export folder to your USB flash drive.

  4. Plug the USB flash drive with the program files into the USB port of the robot controller.

Back up Robot System Files

It is recommended to back up robot system files before loading Standard Interface program files to avoid system corruption that may be caused by the loading operation. In case any issue occurs, you can use the backup file to restore the robot system.

  1. Open the TMflow software, click the icon tm interface program icon2 in the upper left corner of the window, and select System  Backup\Restore.

    tm backup1

  2. Click Backup, enter a File Name for the backup file, and then click Backup.

    tm backup3

    If you need to restore the robot system with the backup file, click Restore and then Restore.

    tm backup4

Load the Files to the Robot

Before loading the files to the robot, please press and hold the M/A button on the Robot Stick to switch the robot to the Manual mode (the green Manual light is on).

tm setup instructions load

  1. Open the TMflow software, click tm interface program icon2 and then select System.

    tm setup instructions load1

  2. Click Import/Export.

    tm setup instructions load2

  3. Click Import

    tm setup instructions load3

  4. A Robot List window will pop up, and then select the program file TM000249_AC173610 and click OK.

    tm setup instructions load4

  5. Click Project, and select mmMain.zip in the Select files, and then it will be displayed in the Selected files panel on the right.

    tm setup instructions load5
    tm setup instructions load6

  6. Click Ethernet Slave, and select Transmit/mmEthernet, and then it will be displayed in the Selected files panel on the right.

    tm setup instructions load7
    tm setup instructions load8

  7. Click Import

    tm setup instructions load9

  8. After the files have been imported successfully, click OK in the “Import complete” window.

    tm setup instructions load10

  9. Unplug the USB flash drive from the IPC after you have completed the above steps.

Run the Program

Enable the Ethernet Slave Service

  1. Select Setting  Connection.

    tm setup instructions load11

  2. Select Ethernet Slave  Data Table Setting.

    The Ethernet Slave should be in a disabled state. In other words, the STATUS is displayed as Disable. If the Ethernet Slave is in the enabled state, please click Disable.
    tm setup instructions load12

  3. Set the Communicate Mode to JSON, and click Open.

    tm setup instructions load13

  4. Select mmEthernet in the pop-up Save Transmit File Name window, and click OK.

    tm setup instructions load14

  5. Click ← in the Receive/Send Data Table Setting window.

    tm setup instructions load15

  6. Click Enable.

    tm setup instructions load16

Run the mmMain Program

  1. Select Run Setting  mmMain.

    tm setup instructions load18

  2. Click Yes in the pop-up window to set mmMain as the current project.

    tm setup instructions load19

  3. Press the M/A button on the Robot Stick until you hear a beep, which suggests that the Manual mode has been disabled. Press the buttons + - + + - in sequence, and the blue Auto light will be on, suggesting that the robot has been switched to the Auto mode.

    tm setup instructions load20

  4. Then press the Run button on the Robot Stick, and the program will run after three beeps.

Test Master-Control Communication

Create a Mech-Viz Project

  1. Open Mech-Viz, press Ctrl+N on the keyboard to create a new project. Select the robot model corresponding to your real robot brand and model on the interface as shown below.

    Unnamed image

  2. Press Ctrl+S and create or select a folder to save the project.

  3. Right-click the project name in the left panel in Mech-Viz and select Autoload Project.

    Unnamed image

Connect to the Robot

  1. Click Master-Control Robot on the toolbar of Mech-Viz.

  2. Input the IP address of the real robot in Robot IP address (the IP address in the picture is only an example). Click Connect the robot.

    Unnamed image

    If Mech-Viz successfully connects the real robot, the current status will change to Connected. Meanwhile, the icon in the toolbar will turn from blue to green.

    Unnamed image

    If the connection fails, please double-check the robot IP address.

Move the Robot

  1. In the toolbar of Mech-Viz, change the “Vel.” (velocity) and “Acc.” (acceleration) parameters to 5%.

    Unnamed image

  2. Click Sync Robot in the toolbar, and you can synchronize the poses of the simulated robot in the 3D simulation space with the poses of the real robot. Then click Sync Robot again to unselect it.

    Unnamed image

  3. In the Robot tab, slightly adjust the value of “J1”, for example, from 0˚ to 3˚. This operation will move the simulated robot.

    Unnamed image

  4. Click Move real robot and check if the real robot has moved. If the real robot has reached the JPs set for the simulated robot, the master-control communication is working.

    When moving the robot, please ensure the safety of personnel. In the case of an emergency, press the emergency stop button on the teach pendant!
    Unnamed image

After running the mmMain program on the robot side but Mech-Viz fails to connect the robot, you can use NetAssist in the xxx\Mech-Mind Software Suite-x.x.x{product-center}\tool directory as a client to connect the 5890 and 5891 ports of the robot to check if these two ports are opened successfully.

  • If port 5890 cannot be connected successfully, please check whether the mmMain program on the robot side has been run successfully.

  • If port 5891 cannot be connected successfully, please check whether the Ethernet Slave on the robot has been enabled or restart the robot.

Appendix

Modify the IP Address of the Robot

  1. Click tm interface program icon2, and select System  Network.

    tm setup instructions lan1

  2. Set the IP Address and Subnet Mask in the Network setting window. Please make sure that IP addresses of the robot and the IPC belong to the same subnet.

    tm setup instructions lan2

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