ABB Motion Program Exec requires software to be installed on the robot. This software can be installed manually by copying files to the robot controller and importing configuration files. This documents covers manually installing the software on a virtual controller in Robot Studio.
This section only needs to be completed once on RobotWare installation.
Begin by installing and starting RobotStudio. See http://new.abb.com/products/robotics/robotstudio/downloads for downloads.
Once installed, open RobotStudio and click on the "Add-Ins" tab on the top of the window.
First, install the newest version of RobotWare 6.14 for IRC5 controllers. Versions greater than RobotWare 6.14 may work, but they have not been tested. In the "RobotApps" -> "Gallery" window, select RobotWare for IRC5. On the right, select "Version" to be the greatest version of 6.14. In this example, version 6.14.00.01 is the greatest version available. Click "Add", accept the next window, and wait for the installation to finish.
RobotStudio is now ready to create a solution.
Click on the "File" tab, and then "New". Check "Include a Robot and Virtual Controller". Select the RobotWare version installed in Step 1, in this case "6.14.00.01". For this example, the "IRB 1200 5kg 0.9m" robot is used. Any 6 or 7 axis single-arm robot can be used instead. Change the project "Name" if desired. Uncheck "Customize Options". Click "Create" when ready.
If a window "Select library for '1200.09_5_TypeB (ROB_1)" appears, select "IRB1200_5_90_STD_03" and click "OK".
Check which model the "real" robot is if using a robot other than IRB1200. Normally the "STD" version is fine for simulation. The variant in terms of reach and payload is very important. The other options often don't affect simulation.
Click on the "Controller" tab on the top. Then right click on the virtual control listed in the left tree view under "Current Station". In this example, the controller is "IRB1200_5_90", but it will vary depending on the project configuration. Click "Change Options" on the right-click popup menu.
In the "Change Options" window, select "Communication" -> "616-1 PC Interface" and "Engineering Tools" -> "623-1 Multitasking". If using EGM, also select "Engineering Tools" -> "689-1 Externally Guided Motion".
Click OK. Click "Yes" to restart the controller. Click "OK" to confirm I-start.
Next, copy over the RAPID files to the controller "HOME" directory. For the virtual controller, right click on "HOME" in the controller tree. (This is the same controller that options were changed on previously.) Click "Open Folder".
Copy error_reporter.mod, motion_program_exec.mod, motion_program_logger.mod, and
motion_program_shared.sys from <repo_root>/robot/HOME to the folder opened by clicking "Open Folder". The four
files should now be visible under "HOME" in the tree view in RobotStudio. If using EGM, also copy
motion_program_exec_egm.mod to the "HOME" folder.
Right click on "Configuration" in the controller tree, and click on "Load Parameters". Browse to
<repo_root>/robot/config_params and select SYS.cfg. Click OK to confirm loading parameters,
and OK to acknowledge restart is required. Repeat for EIO.cfg in the same directory. Make sure
"Load parameters and replace duplicates" is selected in the file browser window for both. Click
"Controller" -> "Restart (drop down)" -> "Reset RAPID (P-Start)" to restart the controller with
the new software. Select "OK" to confirm RAPID reset.
If using EGM, use the configuration files from <repo_root>/robot/config_params_egm, and load SYS.cfg,
EIO.cfg, and MOC.cfg instead of the files in config_params. P-Start once loaded to load the changes. (It is
safe to load these different configuration files after the normal files.)
The installation should now be complete. The following should match, and can be checked against your system to verify installation (if using EGM, there will be additional files and signals. Newer versions may add more signals):
Install the module using pip install ..
The robot is now ready to run programs! The <repo_root>/examples directory contains examples to use the scripts.
python example.py
On Linux, it may be necessary to run python3
python3 example.py
EGM examples can be found in <repo_root>/examples/egm.
By default, the virtual controller listens on http://localhost:80 for requests. The Python
module uses ABB WebServices for communication.
To update RAPID modules, copy the updated files to HOME, and click Controller ->
Restart (dropdown)-> Reset RAPID (P-start).