This section shows how to connect to a real robot arm from RoboDK using robot drivers and perform some simple operations.

1.Right click a robot

2.Select Connect to robot…

3.Enter the IP of the robot

4.Select Connect

A green message displaying Ready will appear if the connection was successful, as shown in the following image.

Tip: Use the ping button to test if the robot is connected to the computer.

Important: Some robot controllers require a specific setup or activating a specific option on the robot controller. Follow the instructions for your robot.

Robot Drivers - Image 2

Tip: Select Get robot joints to retrieve the current robot position from the robot and update the position of the virtual robot in RoboDK.

Tip: Double click Disconnect twice to force the driver process to stop. The driver might become unresponsive if the robot stops unexpectedly (due to a collision or axis limits for example), in that case, the driver can be restarted by double clicking Disconnect, then, Connect again.

Tip: Robot programs can also be generated offline and transferred through FTP if the robot and the computer are in the same network, as shown in the Transfer Program section. The robot driver is not used in this case. Provide the IP, FTP user name and FTP password by selecting More options in the robot connection window. Then, programs can be transferred when selecting the option Send program to robot (Ctrl+F6).

Note: Programs created using the RoboDK API can also be used to move the robot in real time. More information in the Using Drivers with the API.

Note: The Troubleshoot section provides more information if the connection doesn’t work.

Using the GUI

A robot program that has been created using the Graphical User Interface (GUI) can be executed on the robot following these steps.

1.Right click a program

2.Check the Run on robot option

3.Double click the program to start it

The program should start on the real robot and the simulator will follow the robot movements. The Connection status will display Working… in yellow when the robot is busy.

Note: The program icon should be updated as shown in the following image to shown that the program is running on the robot.

Robot Drivers - Image 4

Using the API

It is possible to control the movement of a robot from the RoboDK API, for example, to program a robot from a Python program or a C# application.

The Run on robot option is managed automatically when a Python program is run from RoboDK. Follow these steps to run a Python program on the robot:

1.Right click a Python program

2.Select Run on robot

The program should start running on the robot and the robot connection status will be updated accordingly.

Tip: Select the macro SampleOfflineProgramming.py from the C:/RoboDK/Library/Macros/ folder to test it with a hexagonal path around the current location of the robot.

Robot Drivers - Image 7

If the program is executed outside the RoboDK’s GUI (for debugging purposes, or if we are using the RoboDK API for C# for example), we can set the RunMode using RDK.setRunMode to RUNMODE_RUN_ROBOT. This will force the program to run on the robot. It is also possible to establish the connection using robot.Connect().

Note: RoboDK automatically sets the RunType to RUNMODE_SIMULATE by default the RoboDK API is started, unless a Python program is generated or set to Run on robot using the GUI.

The following code shows a brief example to establish a connection with the robot directly from the API:

# Start the RoboDK API

RDK = Robolink()

robot = RDK.Item('',ITEM_TYPE_ROBOT)

# Connect to the robot using default connetion parameters

success = robot.Connect()

status, status_msg = robot.ConnectedState()

if status != ROBOTCOM_READY:

# Stop if the connection did not succeed

raise Exception("Failed to connect: "+ status_msg)

# Set to run the robot commands on the robot

RDK.setRunMode(RUNMODE_RUN_ROBOT)

# Note: This is set automatically if we use

# robot.Connect() through the API

# Move the robot:

robot.MoveJ([10,20,30,40,50,60])

Tip: Select the macro SampleOnlineProgramming.py from the C:/RoboDK/Library/Macros/ folder for a more complete example. Also, more examples of online programming using the Python API and the C# API are available in the RoboDK API section.

Note: It is also possible to trigger a program created using the GUI from the RoboDK API the same way it can be triggered manually using the GUI, as shown in the previous section. The following example shows how:

prog = RDK.Item('MainProgram', ITEM_TYPE_PROGRAM)

prog.setRunType(PROGRAM_RUN_ON_ROBOT) # Set the run on robot option

# Set to PROGRAM_RUN_ON_SIMULATOR to run on the simulator only

prog.RunProgram()

while prog.Busy() == 1:

pause(0.1)

print("Program done")

How to use Robot Drivers

Using the GUI

Using the API