Fanuc Robot CAM program

[Death Adder]

I don't know if anyone would be interested but I just completed (well it works anyway) a G-Code to Fanuc Teach Pendant Program converter. It basically does exactly what it sounds like. You input a gcode program (currently only for flat cutting AKA using your 6 axis robot as a flatbed blank cutter) and the program spits out a TP program that can be directly compiled and run on the robot. This is a different sort of CNC program but still CAM nonetheless. It supports all sort of goodies like static offsets, position register offsets, different tools and work frames, and setting the head orientation. Graphical viewing of the path is there too. Currently I'm a little iffy on whether the arc correction is working right... What I mean by that is - Fanuc robots follow arcs based on start, end, and a third point that lies on the curve. GCode has a start, end, and arc centerpoint. You need to calculate the third point for the robot for each curve. It seems to work but some cases get improperly figured and I'm not sure if it's surfcam's fault or mine... Might be a tough thing because when I ran these sort of paths out of surfcam to my old gantry flatbed cutter it would screw up the arc corners sometimes too. I think it has to do with having very small radii on corners. The flatbed controller messed up the same way my software is doing. ;(

Is there any interest in a program that can generate Fanuc robot programs? I might even write a compiler to turn the ascii output into binary TP programs if anyone has a need for that (like, say, if you can't get your hands on the maketp program from Fanuc.)

[dig_dirt]

yes I would love to see what you have. The problem with your cuve end may be in the motion control setting in the sysvars file of the robot. The program I would like to see is the one that turns 2d g code patterns into tp programs

[Death Adder]

Originally Posted by dig_dirt yes I would love to see what you have. The problem with your cuve end may be in the motion control setting in the sysvars file of the robot. The program I would like to see is the one that turns 2d g code patterns into tp programs

Well, since I wrote that I fixed the arc problems. But now I'm rewriting it in C# (.NET2005). It sort of works but there are some weird problems. I don't use the SysVars file right now. I'm not sure if I'd need to. So long as it outputs 2D paths with the head axes locked things should be OK. I've used it like that on my setup.

Anyway, someday hopefully there will be something useable. I hope to fix up the C# version and get OpenGL visualization of paths working fairly soon.

[ikke]

Is there any interest in a program that can generate Fanuc robot programs? I might even write a compiler to turn the ascii output into binary TP programs if anyone has a need for that (like, say, if you can't get your hands on the maketp program from Fanuc.)

Here's some interest...
After 10 years of programming CNC machines I've been asked to program our Fanuc Robots (P-145 + R-J3) but I'm unable to do this off-line on my PC.
The only method we're using today is with the teach pendant.
Maybe you can explain how to convert the binary files to ASCII so I could try to make a conversion program in Visual Basic...
I'm also interested in the development of the G-code to TP program.

[Death Adder]

The robot's control software is capable of converting a binary robot file into an ascii file. You use the teach pendant to go into the program selection screen and move over to SAVE. It will send the ascii file to a connected PC through the serial port. That's with an RJ1 robot. You might be able to hook it up via ethernet with an RJ3 but I've no experience with anything other than an RJ1.

The correct software to interface a PC with the robot hopefully came with your robot or you purchased it seperately... Otherwise there's trouble. I do indeed have a GCode -> TP program but it still needs the maketp utility from Fanuc to convert the resulting ascii file (which is in the same format that the robot will send to a PC) into a binary TP file. Unfortunately there is no free or open source alternative to maketp. You really have to get it from Fanuc or find someone who will be willing to send it to you.

I use maketp to compile my programs and then use KFloppy to make a connected PC appear to be a fanuc floppy drive to the robot. This allows for sending and receiving programs. Without KFloppy and MakeTP you will be severely limited in what you can do.

I'm going to try to clean up my C# version of the GCode to TP program and upload it somewhere. Hopefully, even though I haven't had much time to commit to this, it will help someone else. And maybe, if I'm lucky, somebody will help fix it up and send the changes to me. ;-)

[Daresh]

I would also like to see Your work

I'm searching for alternative ways to control a robot, basing on CAD models and I need some kind of software to convert.

I presume there is no such software from FANUC...

[Death Adder]

Sure fanuc has software to do things like that. And it's only something like 15000 dollars. It's steal I tell you! ;-)

I'll try it get that program out soon.

Originally Posted by Daresh I would also like to see Your work I'm searching for alternative ways to control a robot, basing on CAD models and I need some kind of software to convert. I presume there is no such software from FANUC...

[Daresh]

Thank's a lot!

Originally Posted by Death Adder I'll try it get that program out soon.

[roboticguru]

I would also like to see this. I was considering writing something like this last night. I've been using the Fanuc software to create paths. It is very tedious and time consuming to use. This could be the answer

[Death Adder]

Originally Posted by roboticguru I would also like to see this. I was considering writing something like this last night. I've been using the Fanuc software to create paths. It is very tedious and time consuming to use. This could be the answer

Yeah, sorry for being such a jerk and not uploading it for FOREVER. But I did finally do it! It's currently being moderated (so someone has got to approve it) but it's in the downloads area in the open source catagory. Hopefully it'll be of use to some of you.

[Death Adder]

Seems like that file never saw the light of day in the downloads section... Bum deal! I'm attaching it to this post instead.

[kiethnt]

Dear Death Adder,
I have just read you program Robot Translator, it's very interested for me because now I'm doing a small project, in which I would like to convert G_code of CNC machine to robot program for KUKA robor (not Fanuc). A big problem here is I 'm not familarly with VB, i just do with VC++, so I would like ask you that if ou have the source code written by VC++ please give me, or show me how to do it. any way I want to say thank very much for your post.