THESE ARE NOT TOYS!! IF YOU CAN NOT FOLLOW THE DIRECTIONS, YOU WILL NOT USE THEM!!

Transcription

1 ROBOTICS If you were to walk into any major manufacturing plant today, you would see robots hard at work. Businesses have used robots for many reasons. Robots do not take coffee breaks, vacations, call in sick, etc. They are sometimes more precise and are effected by chemicals like people can be. There are some drawbacks however. If the programer does not do his/her job right, the robots will not work properly. Here in the technology rooms, you will be using robotic arms. THESE ARE NOT TOYS!! IF YOU CAN NOT FOLLOW THE DIRECTIONS, YOU WILL NOT USE THEM!! FOLLOW THE DIRECTIONS!! You and your group will be required to the complete the following items to successfully finish this unit. 1. Go to the library for the first two days of the unit to research and write a one page report on the following: A. The earliest robots used B. How robots have been used in industry C. How robots have been used in movies 2. Use the robotic arms according to the work sheets provided. 3. Follow the instructor's directions for the rest of the unit. You are now ready to practice with the arm: 1. Turn on the power pack. 2. Practice moving the robotic arm using the different controls on the teach pendent. 3. Try picking up your pen or pencil and moving it from one spot to another.

2 ROBOTICS Now that you have practiced moving the arm, it is time to start learning how to program the arm. I. Problem Solving It is very important for you to feel comfortable moving the robot around before you start to program it or do some serious work with the robot. To get a little practice with the robot, do the following: CHECK EACH OF THE FOLLOWING ON THIS SHEET AS YOU FINISH IT. A. Move the robot to PO (Position O) on the grid, then turn it off, wait 3 seconds and then turn it back on. Get in the habit of doing this process before each new program. This whole process is called "Homing" the robot. B. Pick a block up and move it to another part of the table. C. Pick up a block and drop it in a box. D. Stack three blocks on top of each other. II. Problem Solving 2 Now that you know how the arm moves, and feel pretty comfortable moving the robot around, let's check the normal rotation of each axis. (centerpoint of movement). This is a good thing to do so you won't break the robot as you are learning to use it. Fill in the lines to solve the following problems. As you move each axis, make sure you are always operating in the normal mode. This means that the cables are tight and no motors are "chattering" or slipping. Just notice when the normal "end of travel" is reached for each axis. Simply estimate the angles, you don't have to measure them exactly. PLACE THE ROBOT IN THE CENTER, WITH THE ARM EXTENDED HORIZONTAL FOR THIS ACTIVITY. ALL THE Robot Element Degrees of rotation (mark + or - from center, then the total) BASE SHOULDER ELBOW PITCH ROLL

3 GRIP (open in inches) PROGRAMMING In the previous activities, you have moved the robot and have seen how it works. The main idea behind a robot is that you can "teach" it to do something and then it will do that task over an over, without your help. By now, you are familiar with parts of the robot controller (teach pendent). The teach pendent is the major tool you use to teach, or program the robot. The robot is a flexible device that can do many different jobs once you learn how to program it. READ THIS BEFORE YOU WORK WITH THE ROBOT TODAY How does the robot learn? 1. Turn the robot on. 2. Press the REC key in the lower left corner. 3. Move the robot with one of the black keys. 4. Press the REC key again. 5. Move the robot again. 6. Press REC again. 7. Press the MODE key, then the REC key. You just taught the robot three moves and it now should be repeating those moves over and over. 8. Press the MODE key again to stop the robot. To RUN a program. Record a program then press MODE, then RUN. To STOP a program. Press STOP, the robot will stop instantly. The robot is just that easy to program, but to make it do real jobs, or fancy tricks, you have to know what all the keys do. Read about the lights, then when we get to the keys, you can read and try at the same time. LIGHTS There are five lights on the teach pendant. The purpose of each is as follows: 1. TRAIN - (green ) - This light is on when the robot is ready to move. the black keys and lettering are "active" when this green light is on. If the train light is not on, you turn it on by pressing the MODE key first, then the TRAIN key.

4 2. RUN - (green ) - This light is only on when the robot is running a program. This means that you have taught it a series of moves and the robot is running the program. 3. CLOSED - (green ) - This light is on when the grip is closed. It is turned on when a small switch in the arm of the robot is closed by a cable connected to the gripper fingers. 4. ENTER - (yellow ) - This light is yellow because it means you should enter a number from the pendant. The numbers have YELLOW backgrounds behind black numerals. 5. MODE - (red ) - The MODE light is the "central switching" place of the pendant. You press the MODE key before you do any other options. The red light comes on when you press the MODE key. KEYS You will try most of the keys on the pendant in this activity. Study the following summary of the other keys. DO THE ACTIVITY WITH EACH KEY. To clear the memory between programs, turn the robot off, wait 5 seconds, then turn it back on. TRAIN - The train key puts the robot in the "learn" mode. When the green light is on, the base of the robot will move when you press the key. PAUSE - The pause key allows you to enter a pause in the program. Now you will make the robot follow a simple program. 1. Record a program with three steps. (This means it starts at HOME and then goes to three different places.) Then press keys in the following sequence: MODE PAUSE (The yellow light will come on.) 5 MODE TRAIN, then RUN. This will make the program RUN. This puts a 5 second pause in your program. Watch as it runs to make sure it paused between the right steps. 2. Clear it when you are done. (Press and hold down the MODE key, then press the clear key at the same time.)

5 The GRIP key closes the gripper on an object you want to pick up. 3. Turn the robot on and teach it two moves. Make sure the fingers are wide open, and in a location where you can place the block in the fingers and close them. Then do the following: Press GRIP ( Wait while the fingers close.) Press TRAIN Now teach the robot two more moves, including an opening of the fingers so it will drop the block it has gripped. Then RUN the program. When the robot starts closing it fingers place a pencil so the robot will grip it. This demonstrates the GRIP command allows different sized objects to be picked up. Clear the program. (Press and hold down the MODE key and press CLEAR. Make sure the MODE light blinks off for a second.) The OUT key turns on outputs, such as lights. You will do a lot with this key later. The MOVE key allows you to move the robot around without changing the location of a point. This is used to edit a program. You will do this later. The STEP key allows you to have the robot to move through a program one step at a time. 4. Turn the robot on and record a program with 5 or 6 steps. Run the program and have it stop at the beginning point. Then do the following. Press STEP (The robot will do one step of the program and then stop) Press STEP again. The robot will go one more step. Press STEP again, and let the robot move, until you reach the end of your program. Now when you press STEP, notice the RUN light just blinks and then stops. The robot has 106 steps, you are stepping through these one at a time. Leave the robot where it is, and read about the POINT key.

6 5. The POINT key allows you to have the robot do any step you want. You can skip around the program and do any step. Do the following: Press POINT, the yellow enter light will come on. Press 3. This POINTS the robot to step 3 of your program. Press STEP, the robot will do one step. We don't use the point command a lot, but it can be helpful at times. Now enter: MODE, POINT, 0, MODE, RUN. Your program should run from the beginning. This sequence of keys pointed to step 0, then you had it run. 6. CLEAR, erases the current program. Record a program and then makes sure it runs. Stop the program and then press MODE and CLEAR at the same time. Make sure the red MODE light BLINKS off. and hold it down, then press CLEAR. Now try to run your program. The green RUN light comes on but nothing happens. Your program is gone. 7. The ZERO program clears the registers that keep track of where the motors are. You use this by pressing MODE and ZERO at the same time, like you did with the CLEAR command. By using the ZERO and CLEAR commands, you do the same thing as turning the robot off and then back on. 8. SPEED. The SPEED key allows you to change how fast the robot moves. The sequence is: MODE, SPEED, (enter a number from 1 to 9), MODE, TRAIN. This sets the robot at the speed you enter. 1 is very slow, 9 is pretty fast. Record a short program and change the speed at least three times in the program. Be sure to use a real slow speed and the fastest. The default speed is 5. When you turn the robot on it will move at the 5 speed. MAKE SURE YOU SHOW THIS PROGRAM TO YOUR TEACHER AND HAVE HIM SIGN THE LINE!!!

7 As a review: 1. BLOCK MOVING: Turn on the robot and place the finger tips at PO. Then turn the power off and back on. Now program the robot to pick up the block and place it in a new location. Run your program and have your teacher initial next your check mark after watching it. 2. BLOCK WAVING, WITH SPEED CHANGES AND A PAUSE: Use same procedure as block moving, but have the robot pick up the block, then wave it in the air before it sets it down. Put at least one move with a speed of 2 and have the waving done at a speed of 9. Put a 5 second pause after the wave. Have your teacher initial like number one. 3. THE BLOCK WAVE WITH GRIP: Program the robot to grip a pencil and do all the things in problem 2. Again, have your teacher initial it. PROGRAMING FOR THE REAL WORLD You may remember as a young kid playing with blocks, or watching a younger brother or sister playing. One game that you probably played was to get certain shaped blocks into the proper holes in a board. Hopefully you became very good at it, because you will be doing it again. However, you will have some help - the robot. You are to create a program for the robot arm to place the proper block in the proper hole. To make it easier, no two holes are alike. You may place the blocks any place on the grid you wish, remember the arm has to be able to move around. You need to include the following in your program: 1. Remember to clear the robot before starting to program, and set the PO. 2. A minimum of four movements for each block. 3. A pause between placing the block in the hole and going to the next. 4. A stop in the program when all blocks are in the correct holes. 5. Use a faster speed than the default speed to return to PO. 6. Remember to press REC after each movement you want the robot to do. MAKE SURE YOU SHOW THIS PROGRAM TO YOUR TEACHER AND HAVE HIM SIGN THE LINE!!!