Switching 'modes' with RSI

[ahoarau]

Hello,
I'm just getting started with the RSI, so forgive me if my question is really basic.
I've successfully integrated/moved the robot with the joint_trajectory_controller, but now I'd like to add a bit some functionality to the KRL script. I would like to be able to set variables within the KRL script using the RSI, for example to implement a switch case scenario.

Example :

# In KRL
WHILE TRUE

SWITCH my_state_var
CASE 1
; PTP home

CASE 2 
; MOVECORR() # Then how to exit this function ?

I managed to do this in the past with the FRI (lwr 4+), and KukaVarProxy, but the communication is really random.
If you guys have any tips/examples on how to implement this with RSI, I would be extremely grateful as I spent too many hours not understanding the provided RSI docs. Thanks in advance !

[BrettHemes]

So you want to be able to control when the RSI motion correction becomes active and exits? There are several ways I can think of off the top of my head to accomplish this but all require RSI knowledge and modification of the RSI signal flow configuration.

Can you elaborate a bit on what you want?

FYI:

; MOVECORR() # Then how to exit this function ?

RSI requires a KRL "motion" to be active to actually apply updates. The MOVECORR() function is a special "move" command that results in no KRL motion but applies RSI offsets. This function blocks until a fault or the RSI context issues a stop via the STOP object in the signal flow. You can think of it as a synchronous spinner.

[ahoarau]

Thank for your input. I have managed to integrate an exit via RSIVisual (STOP block connected to the 8th otuput of the Ethernet bloc), and then I have to send an extra boolean to the RSICommand XML that I'm sending (something like ...<s>true</s></Sen>).

So you want to be able to control when the RSI motion correction becomes active and exits? There are several ways I can think of off the top of my head to accomplish this but all require RSI knowledge and modification of the RSI signal flow configuration.

Exactly.

What I expect with a robot from an external computer is as simple as :

• Execute a movement not in realtime, like PTP, LIN etc
• Control the robot in realtime --> MOVECORR function

Example : simple pick and place with visual servoing. All of that from an external computer. PTP to a few points, then movecorr to adjust, then some more PTPs, but all of that from an external computer.

I wish there would be a bloc called PTP in RSIVisual ( just like the axiscorr bloc) so I could just execute a PTP motion

1. Without having to interpolate/control it myself between two points (BIG issue)
2. At higher speed than the max allowed by RSI movecorr (there is a limit that is much lower than T1/T2 max speed, even with maxCorr settings to a high value) (not so big of an issue, but still important)

[gavanderhoorn]

@ahoarau wrote:

At higher speed than the max allowed by RSI movecorr (there is a limit that is much lower than T1/T2 max speed, even with maxCorr settings to a high value) (not so big of an issue, but still important)

this surprises (and confuses) me: RSI should allow you to use 100% of the robots capabilities wrt motion velocity. Are you saying that you can't achieve that?

How are you generating the trajectories?

[gavanderhoorn]

You may actually be interested in #110.

[ahoarau]

You may actually be interested in #110.

Thanks for the info. I thought it could be interesting but in the end you still need to create your own way of sending joint commands :

and then in KRL something like :

SWITCH EKI_GetInt("Robot/Mode") : 
case 1:
   ptp_cmd.A1 = EKI_GetReal("Robot/A1Command")
   ptp_cmd.A2 = ...
   ...
   BAS(#ACC_PTP , $acc_from_eki )
   BAS(#VEL_PTP , $vel_from_eki )
   PTP ptp_cmd
   EKI_SetBool("Robot/MoveDone",True)

Which I guess can be done by playing with the variables $SEN_PINT and $SEN_PREA in RSI.

this surprises (and confuses) me: RSI should allow you to use 100% of the robots capabilities wrt motion velocity. Are you saying that you can't achieve that?

The robot is vibrating a lot if using the absolute mode (T1/T2, IPO/IPO FAST). Smooth when using relative, but limited by gear torque apparently (happended a lot in T1, I was getting the Gear Torque exceeded error even though the movement was super slow).

How are you generating the trajectories?

KDL for now.

[gavanderhoorn]

I mentioned #110 as it is a similar interface as RSI, but with less strict real-time requirements. I'm assuming that if you don't need the real-time bandwidth and very precise control of RSI, EKI might be enough for you, especially if you're ok with letting PTP and LIN do the interpolation for you.

I thought it could be interesting but in the end you still need to create your own way of sending joint commands

well, yes. It's only a driver, so it will need your input to tell it what to make the robot do.

and then in KRL something like

I'm still a bit confused why you'd want to do this with RSI, but nevermind that.

The robot is vibrating a lot if using the absolute mode (T1/T2, IPO/IPO FAST). Smooth when using relative, but limited by gear torque apparently (happended a lot in T1, I was getting the Gear Torque exceeded error even though the movement was super slow).

This sounds like lost packets / non-smooth trajectories / wrong payload settings to me.

RSI is specifically designed to allow external access to and control of the full robot capabilities, so I would suspect something not being completely ok on the side that generates the trajectories or controls the 'playout'.

KDL for now.

That is a bit vague: are you manually interpolating between joint poses, using some kind of trajectory (spline) generator, something else?

[BrettHemes]

I managed to do this in the past with the FRI (lwr 4+), and KukaVarProxy, but the communication is really random.

#110 should similar (if not the same) in approach as KukaVarProxy. Can you elaborate on this statement?

[BrettHemes]

@ahoarau thoughts on this? Any updates?

[ahoarau]

Sorry about the late answer.

This sounds like lost packets / non-smooth trajectories / wrong payload settings to me.

RSI is specifically designed to allow external access to and control of the full robot capabilities, so I would suspect something not being completely ok on the side that generates the trajectories or controls the 'playout'.

After running many more tests : ABSOLUTE makes the robot vibrate. RELATIVE is working great but you have to make sure that you have minimum jitter in the comm (which leads to jerky trajectory --> jerky robot movements --> torque error). Tested with IPO and IPO_FAST.

I managed to do this in the past with the FRI (lwr 4+), and KukaVarProxy, but the communication is really random.

KukaVarProxy allows to set any KRC variable directly, so it's quite easy to setup a mode switching script.
FRI allows users to send a double[], int[] and bool[] that you can access in the KRL code. So basically you have to do you own comm on the KRL side (ex, if bool[0] is true, siwtch to mode 1 and so on).
RSI is quite similar as FRI (you can full $SEN_PINT and $SEN_PREA from the remote computer), but I could not manage yet to access $SEN_PREA and $SEN_PINT in the KRL code (in RSI Visual you can create the link between the Ethernet block to this tab via the MAP_TO_REA but again it seems to stay inside the RSI context, i.e not interaction with the rest of the KRL code).

Anyway a mix between KVP and RSI seem to do the trick for now. Thanks for you help :)