Sales Guide

Robot Communications
C OGN EX

Sales Guide
Robot Communications
C OGN EX

Contents
1 Robot Communications Overview........................................... 4
1.1 Robot Drivers and Sample Robot Code ............................................................................................ +
1.2 !n-Si ght 3.3 Robot Communications Enhancements ........................................................................... +
1.3 Robot Control ler Support Natrix ..................................................................................................... 5
2 Motoman ............................................................................... 6
2.1 Supported Control lers ................................................................................................................... 6
2.2 Communications Configuration ....................................................................................................... 6
2.3 Notoman FAQs ............................................................................................................................. 6
What !n-Sight fi rmware and software do ! need to communi cate to a Notoman robot? .......................... 6
3 Kuka...................................................................................... 7
3.1 Supported Control lers ................................................................................................................... 7
3.2 Communications Configuration ....................................................................................................... 7
3.3 Kuka FAQs ................................................................................................................................... 7
What !n-Sight fi rmwarefsoftware do ! need to communicate to a Kuka robot? ...................................... 7
4 ABB ....................................................................................... S
+.1 Supported Control lers ................................................................................................................... 8
+.2 Communications Configuration ....................................................................................................... 8
+.3 ABB FAQs .................................................................................................................................... 8
Do ! need any software or interface opti ons for ABB communications? ................................................ 8
What !n-Sight fi rmwarefsoftware do ! need to communicate to an ABB robot? ...................................... 8
5 Fanuc .................................................................................... 9
5.1 Supported Control lers ................................................................................................................... 9
5.2 Communications Configuration ....................................................................................................... 9
5.3 FANUC FAQs ................................................................................................................................ 9
Do ! need any software or interface opti ons for FANUC communicati ons?............................................. 9
What !n-Sight software do ! need to communicate to an FANUC robot? ............................................... 9
6 Denso .................................................................................. 10
6.1 Supported Control lers ................................................................................................................. 10
6.2 Communications Configuration ..................................................................................................... 10
6.3 Denso FAQs ............................................................................................................................... 10
What !n-Sight software do ! need to communicate to a Denso robot? ................................................ 10
7 Staubli................................................................................. 11
7.1 Supported Control lers ................................................................................................................. 11
7.2 Communications Configuration ..................................................................................................... 11
7.3 Staubli FAQs .............................................................................................................................. 11
What !n-Sight software do ! need to communicate to a Staubli robot? ............................................... 11
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S Kawasaki ............................................................................. 12
8.1 Supported Control lers ................................................................................................................. 12
8.2 Communications Configuration ..................................................................................................... 12
8.3 Kawasaki FAQs ........................................................................................................................... 12
What !n-Sight software do ! need to communicate to a Kawasaki robot?............................................ 12
9 Other robots {Adept, Epson, IAI, Mitsubishi, Nachi, Yamaha)13
10 Sales Tools .......................................................................... 14
10.1 Robot Appl ications Guide ............................................................................................................. 1+
10.2 Robotics !nitiative Presentation .................................................................................................... 1+
10.3 Sample jobs and Robot Snippets ................................................................................................... 1+

Cognex, !n-Sight, and !n-Sight Explorer are trademarks of Cognex Corporation. Al l other trademarks are property
of third-parties and are not affil iated with Cognex Corporati on.
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1 Robot Communications Overview
The !n-Sight 3.3 rel ease contains several robot communicati ons improvements that wil l facili tate robot i ntegration.
vision Sensors Narketing and Engineering has worked with many of the robot manufacturers to obtain driver and
sample code to faci li tate communicati ons set-up between !n-Sight and various robot controll ers.
1.1 Robot Drivers and Sample Robot Code
Each section of this document highlights the basic requi rements for communications to each robot manufacturer.
Consult the table of contents for the speci fic robot you need to establish communicati ons with. Sampl e code for !n-
Sight and for the specific robot language is provided for most robot manufacturers i n the !n-Sight Expl orer help fi le
or in a separate, more detailed document avail able on the tech support si te or ASP portal . Contact !n-Sight Product
Narketi ng i f you need further information on a robot not l isted in this document.
1.2 In-Sight 3.3 Robot Communications
Enhancements
String formatter
!n-Si ght Expl orer supports a new point and cl ick dialog (!n-Sight
command: FormatStri ng") that makes it easy for users to
format spreadsheet data as text strings to be sent to the robot
controll er. A screen capture of the dial og is shown bel ow.
Consult the !SE 3.3 Help fi le for the use of this new functi on.



Snippets
!n-Si ght Expl orer now supports spreadsheet snippets, which are preconfigured
groups of cel ls that can be dragged and dropped i nto the spreadsheet. Under
Communications" in the Snippets tab on the Tool Palette, select Robots, and
choose the appropriate snippet for your appl ication. There will be a generic
robot communication snippet provided for robots as wel l.

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1.3 Robot Controller Support Matrix
!n-Si ght can communicate to any robot using Native Node commands. The matrix bel ow provides the
recommended controll er and communication protocol for robots that are most frequentl y requested by our
customers. Other controllers and communicati ons may be supported, but these are the most frequentl y used
methods for communicati on. Contact vision Sensors Product Narketing to i nclude other robot manufacturers on
this list.

Recommended
Controller
Recommended
Communication
vision Robot
Language
Competing vision software
from robot manufacturer?
ABB S+C+, S+P+, !RC5 Serial or Ethernet RAP!D Yes - Trueview for 3D
applications
Adept Smart Controller CX Ethernet Yes - iSight
Denso RC5 and RC7 Serial or Ethernet PAC Language No
Epson Nost recent
controller
Ethernet Yes - visionGuide
Fanuc RJ-2, RJ-3 Serial or Ethernet Karel Yes - visLock
IAI X-SEL Ethernet No
Kuka KRC-2 Serial Kuka Robot
Language (KRL)
No
Motoman NRC, NRC-!!, and
XRC
Serial No
Mitsubishi Nost recent
controller
Serial or Ethernet No
Nachi Nost recent
controller
Serial or Ethernet No - Nachi offers a PC vision
8100L board as a vision option
Kawasaki Nost recent
controller
Ethernet AS robot
language
No
Staubli CS8 series Ethernet vAL3 robot
language
No

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2 Motoman
Notoman drivers and sample code were avai lable in previ ous releases, and this is documented in
the !n-Sight help fi le.
2.1 Supported Controllers
Notoman NRC, NRC-!!, and XRC robot control lers communi cate with other devices over RS-232 serial ports usi ng a
complex, but highly robust, error checking protocol . When configured for Notoman seri al communications, the !n-
Sight sensor understands this protocol and is able to respond to the commands i t receives from the Notoman
controll er.
2.2 Communications Configuration
Notoman Node is an extensi on of !n-Sight's Nati ve Node communicati ons. Notoman robot controll ers only send
numeric text over their RS-232 ports; !n-Sight's standard Native Node commands cannot be sent. !nstead, the
Notoman control ler must send a numeric representation of the Nati ve Node commands to an !n-Sight sesor, with
additi onal parameters appended as necessary.
These commands are detail ed in the !n-Sight Expl orer Help file under Communicati ons.

2.3 Motoman FAQs
These are some common support questi ons regardi ng Notoman communicati ons.
Do I need any software or interface options on the Motoman robot controller?
No. The standard control ler will support all commands detailed in !n-Si ght Expl orer Help file.
What In-Sight firmware and software do I need to communicate to a Motoman robot?
Notoman driver support is supported by early versi ons of !n-Sight fi rmware, however, 2.70 PR1 or later is
recommended for Notoman communicati ons. Whi le not required for communication, the spreadsheet snippet
capabil ity in !n-Sight Explorer 3.3 software makes i t easy to drag and drop cel ls pre-configured to communicate to
a given robot controll er.
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3 Kuka
Kuka driver support is now available i n the 3.3 release. The Kuka robot dri ver on the !n-Sight
sensor i mplements a seri al handshaking protocol necessary to communicate wi th the Kuka
controll er. ASC!! Text strings of size < 255 are sent and received by the dri ver.
3.1 Supported Controllers
A Kuka KR C2 or KR C2 Editi on 2005 robot controll er is required for !n-Sight-to-Kuka communicati ons.
3.2 Communications Configuration
Kuka robot controllers communicate with other devices over RS-232 serial ports using a complex, but highly robust,
error checki ng protocol. When configured for Kuka serial communicati ons, the !n-Sight sensor understands this
protocol and is able to respond to the commands i t receives from the Kuka controller.
Kuka Node is an extension of !n-Si ght's Nati ve Node Communications. Because Kuka Node is based on Nati ve
Node, an !n-Sight job may be devel oped and tested i n Nati ve Node, then swi tched to Kuka Node onl y when the
actual robot controll er is connected to the !n-Sight sensor. No other changes to the job are required.
These commands are detail ed in the !n-Sight Expl orer Help file under Communicati ons.
3.3 Kuka FAQs
Do I need any software or interface options on the Kuka robot controller?
No. The standard control ler will support all commands detailed in the !n-Sight Explorer Help file.
What In-Sight firmwareJsoftware do I need to communicate to a Kuka robot?
!n-Si ght 3.3 firmware is required for the Kuka dri ver support. Additionall y, the spreadsheet snippet capabili ty in !n-
Sight Explorer 3.3 software makes i t easy to drag and drop cells pre-configured to communicate to a given robot
controll er.
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4 ABB
ABB requires code to be runni ng on the robot controller in order to open a communicati ons port
and send and receive commands with !n-Sight. Sample !n-Sight code i n the form of snippets is
avai lable in the 3.3 release. Sample robot code (programmed in RAP!D, ABB's robot controller
language) is available i n the more detai led ABB Communications Guide, available on the
cognex.com support website or the cognexsensors.com downloads websi te.
4.1 Supported Controllers
The foll owing ABB Robot Controll ers are supported
!RC5 (Ethernet)
S+C+ (Serial)
S+P+ (Serial)
4.2 Communications Configuration
The ABB robot control ler wi ll be the device controlli ng the acquisition and transfer of data. !n general the robot
controll er, wi th the use of !n-Sight Nati ve Node commands, will trigger the sensor to acquire and process an image
and then request specific data from the sensor.
ABB commands are programmed in the RAP!D robot controll er language. These commands are detail ed in the ABB
Communications Guide avai lable on the tech support websi te or the ASP portal.
4.3 ABB FAQs
These are some common support questi ons regardi ng ABB communications.
Do I need any ABB software or interface options for ABB communications?
Yes, the PC !nterface is recommended for Ethernet communi cations. The Fil e and Seri al channel handl ing i nterface
is required for serial communi cations.
What In-Sight firmwareJsoftware do I need to communicate to an ABB robot?
!t is recommended to run !n-Sight 3.3 firmware on the vision sensor in order to communicate to an ABB robot
controll er, although i t is not required. Addi ti onally, the spreadsheet Snippet capabi lity i n !n-Si ght Expl orer 3.3
software makes it easy to drag and drop cells pre-configured to communicate to a given robot control ler.

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5 FANUC
Fanuc requires code to be running on the robot control ler in order to open a communicati ons port
and send and receive commands. Sampl e !n-Sight code is avail able in the form of snippets in the
3.3 release. Sampl e robot code (programmed in karel, FANUC's robot controller language) is
avai lable in the Fanuc Communications Guide, avai labl e on the cognex.com support websi te or the
cognexsensors.com downloads website.
5.1 Supported Controllers
The foll owing FANUC Robot Control lers are supported
RJ-2 (serial only)
RJ-3 (serial and Ethernet)
5.2 Communications Configuration
The FANUC robot controll er wi ll be the device control li ng the acquisi tion and transfer of data. !n general the robot
controll er, wi th the use of !n-Sight Nati ve Node commands, will trigger the sensor to acquire and process an image
and then request specific data from the sensor.
FANUC commands are programmed in the karel robot controller language. These commands are detail ed in the
FANUC Communications Guide avai lable on the tech support website or the ASP portal.
5.3 FANUC FAQs
These are some common support questi ons regardi ng FANUC communications.
Do I need any FANUC software or interface options for FANUC communications?
Karel software is requi red for configuri ng serial or ethernet communications. The PC !nterface is requi red to use
socket messagi ng for Ethernet communications. The Sensor interface is required for serial communications.
What In-Sight software do I need to communicate to an FANUC robot?
!t is recommended to run !n-Sight 3.3 firmware on the vision sensor in order to communicate to an FANUC robot
controll er, although i t is not required. Addi ti onally, the spreadsheet Snippet capabi lity i n !n-Si ght Expl orer 3.3
software makes it easy to drag and drop cells pre-configured to communicate to a given robot control ler.

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6 Denso
Denso robot controllers have the abi lity to communicate to !n-Sight sensors using plai n ASC!!
text. Therefore, !n-Sight visi on Sensors can be programmed to use !n-Sight's built-i n Native
Node command set using a serial or ethernet connecti on. Denso sample code is provided in the
Denso Communicati ons Guide avai lable on the cognex.com support website or the
cognexsensors.com downloads website.
6.1 Supported Controllers
Denso RC-5 and RC-7 robot controllers are recommended; however, because previous control lers communicated via
ASC!! serial protocol , they wil l most l ikely be able to communicate to !n-Sight vision sensors as well.
6.2 Communications Configuration
The Denso robot control ler wi l l be the device controll ing the acquisi tion and transfer of data. !n general the robot
controll er, wi th the use of !n-Sight Nati ve Node commands, will trigger the sensor to acquire and process an image
and then request specific data from the visi on sensor.
6.3 Denso FAQs
These are some common support questi ons regardi ng Denso communications.
Do I need any software or interface options on the Denso robot controller?
No. The standard control ler will support all commands detailed in the Denso Communications Guide
What In-Sight software do I need to communicate to a Denso robot?
!n-Si ght 3.3 firmware is recommended, however pri or versi ons of !n-Sight firmware should communicate to the
Denso RC-5 and RC-7 control l ers. Addi ti onal ly, the spreadsheet Snippet capabil ity in !n-Sight Expl orer 3.3 software
makes i t easy to drag and drop cells pre-configured to communicate to a gi ven robot control ler.
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7 Staubli
Staubli has developed a Nati ve Node command library in their vAL3 robot programming l anguage
to communicate to !n-Sight vi sion sensors over ethernet TCPf!P protocol.
7.1 Supported Controllers
The entire CS8 l ine of robot control lers supports the vAL3 native mode command library.
7.2 Communications Configuration
The Staubl i robot control ler wi ll be the device control li ng the acquisi tion and transfer of data. !n general the robot
controll er, wi th the use of !n-Sight Nati ve Node commands, will trigger the sensor to acquire and process an image
and then request specific data from the visi on sensor.
Staubli has documented these commands i n a document titl ed val3 Library for Communication with Cognex !n-
Sight visi on Sensors". Contact Staubl i for this document, as they will update it as new functionali ty is added.
7.3 Staubli FAQs
These are some common support questi ons regardi ng Staubl i communications.
Do I need any software or interface options on the Staubli robot controller?
The robot control ler needs to have vAL3 firmware version +.0 or greater in order to utilize the Native Node
command set.
What In-Sight software do I need to communicate to a Staubli robot?
!n-Si ght 3.3 firmware is recommended, however pri or versi ons of !n-Sight firmware should communicate to the
Staubli control ler. Additional l y, the spreadsheet Snippet capabili ty in !n-Si ght Expl orer 3.3 software makes i t easy
to drag and drop cells pre-configured to communicate to a given robot controll er.
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S Kawasaki
To communicate wi th !n-Sight, it is necessary to program Kawasaki controll ers with
thei r standard i ncluded higher-level l anguage cal led AS", and to use a
communication driver that Kawasaki has devel oped and provides.
S.1 Supported Controllers
Any controll er that supports AS should be able to communicate to !n-Sight.
S.2 Communications Configuration
The Kawaskaki robot controller will be the device controll ing the acquisi tion and transfer of data. !n general the
robot control ler, with the use of !n-Sight Native Node commands, wil l trigger the sensor to acquire and process an
image and then request specific data from the visi on sensor.
Contact Kawasaki for the !n-Si ght robot driver and sample code, as they have developed this dri ver internally and
are actively supporting i t.
S.3 Kawasaki FAQs
These are some common support questi ons regardi ng Kawasaki communications.
Do I need any software or interface options on the Kawasaki robot controller?
The higher-level AS robot language is requi red for communications.
What In-Sight software do I need to communicate to a Kawasaki robot?
!n-Si ght 3.3 firmware is recommended, however pri or versi ons of !n-Sight firmware should communicate to the
Kawasaki control ler. Addi tionally, the spreadsheet Snippet capabil ity in !n-Sight Explorer 3.3 software makes i t
easy to drag and drop cells pre-configured to communicate to a gi ven robot controll er.
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9 General Communications Approach
For other robots: Adept, Epson, !A!, Ni tsubishi, Nachi, Panasonic, Yamaha, Toshiba, Sony, and others, the followi ng
is a general approach to setti ng up communicati ons wi th !n-Sight.
The robot control ler wi ll be the device controlli ng the acquisiti on and transfer of data. !n general the robot
controll er, wi th the use of !n-Sight Nati ve Node commands, will trigger the sensor to acquire and process an image
and then request specific data from the visi on sensor. Native mode commands are documented in the !n-Sight
Explorer help fil e. A typical communications exchange woul d be as follows:
Robot Controller code
1. Connect to !n-Sight
2. Use a SW8 (Set Event and Wait) native mode command to acquire image
3. Use a Gv (Get value) nati ve mode command to get the stri ng in a particular !n-Sight spreadsheet cell
+. Read the data and parse the string as necessary
5. Convert the data to the appropriate data type and populate the robot posi tion registers
In-Sight code
1. Configure !n-Sight's A0 cel l (i mage properties) so that trigger type is set to external
2. Configure !n-Sight vision tools to determine part l ocation
3. Use FormatString" function or other !n-Sight string formatting functions to format data as necessary
+. Note the cel l l ocation where this data is stored so that the Gv Native Node command from the robot can
be used to retrieve this data from the !n-Sight sensor.

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10 Sales Tools
Several sal es tools, in addition to this Sales Guide, are avail able to help you i ntroduce the benefits of the !n-Sight
3.3 release to your robotics customers.
10.1 Robot Applications Guide
Narketi ng Literature highl ighti ng robotics-focused !n-Sight Explorer enhancements in !SE 3.3, as well as example
applications.
10.2 Robotics Initiative Presentation
Educate your customers on trends in the robotic industry and highlight several example applications.
10.3 Sample jobs and Robot Snippets
A Sample robot job wi th i mages will be avai labl e to help get robotic customers up and running wi th a new robotic
application. !n addition, spreadsheet Sni ppets wi ll be avai l able i n !SE 3.3 to facil itate communicati on to a variety
of robots.