VAL3 Basics

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VAL3 Basics

• Sebastian van Delden
• USC Upstate
• svandelden_at_uscupstate.edu

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What it is?

• VAL3 is Stäublis current language
• Available on the different versions of the CS8
  controller.
• New teach pendant has also be designed that
  supports complete program development from the
  pendant
• I.e. you can teach points and write the program
  all from the pendant no need for a computer at
  all in many applications!!

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Teach Pendant Overview

• Mode Button
• Arm Power on/off
• E-Stop
• Movement keys
• Movement Mode (joint/frame/..)
• Speed adjust
• Function keys
• Keyboard
• Navigation keys
• Application control (Run/Pause/..)
• Enable button (like dead man)
• Digital I/O buttons
• Jog keys

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Pendant Menus

• Arrow keys for navigation
• Up / Down to select items
• Right to enter/ expand
• Left to collapse
• Application manager
• Load, save, and edit applications
• Task manager
• Debugging
• Control panel
• System status, settings, IO
• Calibration
• Arm maintenance
• Event Log

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Manual Mode

• Turn on Arm Power
• Arm power button
• Toggle deadman / parking
• Move / Hold status
• Must press and hold to get move
• Speed
• Restricted to 250 mmps
• Deadman
• Active
• In Manual mode the arm can be manually jogged
  around.

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Manual Mode Joint

• Move each joint seperately
• Simple, easy to understand
• Fast large movements of arm in cell
• 6 Axis
• Angle for each axis
• 4 Axis
• Angle for joints 1,2, and 4
• Distance for joint 3

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Manual Mode Frame, Tool

• Manual movement based on a reference frame (3D
  coordinate system)
• Coordinated movement of all joints
• Allows linear paths or rotations around a frames
  axis
• Good for Small precise movements
• Offset with in frame
• Translational
• X, Y, Z
• Rotational
• RX, RY, RZ

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Manual Mode Point
2 press and hold

• Can be used to move to (or with respect to) a
  taught point.
• Cursor to taught point and then hold down
  Move/Hold
• Can also be used to approach points based on
  the tool frame.

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w.r.t tool frame
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Teaching Locations

• Press New to create a new location variable
• A point location
• Y-Y-Z Yaw-Pitch-Roll information is stored
• A joint location
• Joint angles are stored
• After you declare the new variable, to set it
  press Here
• Select tool and frame
• Dont forget to set a correct tool transformation
  which moves the tool frame to an appropriate spot
  on the tool
• Note Yaw-Pitch-Roll in VAL3 is Rotation around
  X-Y-Z

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Creating Applications

• Applications/projects contain data and
  instructions used by the robot to perform its
  job.
• A folder with xml files inside
• A project file (PJX)
• A Data file (DTX)
• Many program/function files (PGX)
• Several functions can be written for a project
• Stored on a Drive
• Loaded into memory to be run

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Example program/function PGX file
lt?xml version"1.0" encoding"utf-8"
?gt ltprogramList xmlns"ProgramNameSpace" gt
ltprogram name"demo" public"false" gt
ltdescription /gt ltparamSection/gt
ltlocalSection/gt ltsourcegt ltcodegt
begin movej(above2,flange,mNomSpeed)
movel(p0,flange,mNomSpeed) movel(p1,flange,m
NomSpeed) movej(above2,flange,mNomSpeed)
movel(p0,flange,mNomSpeed) movec(p2,p1,fla
nge,mNomSpeed) movej(above2,flange,mNomSpeed)
waitEndMove() end lt/codegt
lt/sourcegt lt/programgt lt/programListgt
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Programs/functions

• The application can consist of numerous functions
  which can call each other
• There are two special ones that are always
  created for you when you create a new
  application
• start()
• Is the function that always gets called when you
  run the program.
• stop()
• Is the function that always gets called when the
  program finishes.
• You can place any kind of VAL3 instructions/code
  in these functions.

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TaskCreate / Call

• taskCreate
• Spawns a seperate process
• Several process can be spawned which run in
  parrellel to each other
• CPU alternates between all tasks based on some
  Priority
• Arguments function title, priority and function
  name.
• taskCreate some title, 100, fun()
• call
• Transfer program execution to a subroutine.
• call fun()
• Use taskCreate or call in the start() function to
  get things going

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Editing Code

• Use the menus to create new programs/functions
  and edit code. Example function
• Ins. inserts a new line
• VAL3 gives you a drop down menu with VAL3 code...
  Sweet!
• Or, you can insert pre-defined variable
  names(Glo.), etc.

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Global Variables

• Simple
• Num
• Bool
• String
• Structures
• Trsf
• Joint
• Point
• Frame
• Config
• Tool
• IO
• Dio
• Aio
• Sio
• Saving

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Arrays

• More then one value
• Same name
• Numerical index
• Starts with 0
• Actually all VAL3 variables are arrays
• Single value array of 1
• No brackets defaults to index 0

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Flow Control

• taskCreate
• call
• while
• do until
• for
• if
• switch
• wait
• watch
• delay

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Operators

• Math
• assignment
• add, conacate
• - subtract
• multiply
• / divide
• modulus
• ! not
• Comparisons
• equal to
• ! not equal to
• gt greater then
• gt greater then or equal to
• lt less then
• lt less then or equal to

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Instructions

• Some examples
• Abs
• Min
• Max
• Limit
• Power
• Left
• Right
• Mid
• Chr
• Asc
• Size

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Motion

• Instructions
• movej
• movel
• movec
• Stack
• stopMove
• restartMove
• restMotion
• waitEndMove

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Different types of movement

• Point-to-Point
• movej(point/joint location, tool, mDesc)
• Move to a location in the most optimal manner
  either joint-angle or regular point
• The second parameter is the tool frame you should
  use So, a tool frame is provide for every
  movement command.
• mDesc is a parameter that says what kind of
  movement to do. mNomSpeed is the built-int
  variable that refers to normal movement.
• Linear
• movel(point location, tool, mDesc)
• Just like movej, but move in a linear motion
  (straight line movement.
• Circular
• movec(point via, point target, tool, mDesc)
• Move to target location, but in a circular
  fashion which passes through a via point.

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Different Types of Movement (cont)

• Circular Movement

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Executing an Application

• Navigate to load from disk or create a new
  program and store it on the built-in harddrive
• Youll need to be in Local mode before you can
  run the program
• Keep pressing Mode button to cycle through the
  different modes.
• Need to re-park teach pendant when switching
  between Local and Manual modes.
• Remove the metal bracket from the back of the
  pendant and set the pendant back in it.
• Press the Run button and choose the program to
  run.
• If the program involves movement, youll also
  have to press Move/Hold

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Stäubli Robotics Studio

• Recall that VAL3 software can also be developed
  with Stäubli Robotics Studio
• Its an IDE that runs on a PC
• More user friendly that the teach pendant.
• Offline Programming
• Edit
• Test
• Transfer

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Using Stäubli Robotics Studio (SRS)

• A project can be FTPed back and forth between the
  CS8 and a PC running SDS.
• SDS is a much better programming IDE and will
  make developing complex projects easier.
• Points still need to be taught using the
  controller though
• This example project named circular (to the
  right) was started on the CS8 controller and has
  a program called demo in it.

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Stäubli Robotics Studio

• To transfer a project to SDS, you need to
  establish an FTP connection
• Need to know the controller IP address and
  username and password
• This can be found in the menus on the controller.
• Enter the information in SDSs FTP tool

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Stäubli Robotics Studio

• Locate the project you would like to transfer

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Stäubli Robotics Studio

• Open the project in SRS

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Stäubli Robotics Studio

• Edit code transfer back went ready