Ease of use and intuitive programming is one of the main advantages of Universal Robots cobots. Aiming to make the operation of the collaborative robot even more flexible and as simple as possible, the Cobot Planet Applications Engineering team has developed a set of procedures - recipes for semi-finished workpiece mounting - which has been designed on the basis of years of experience in machining. These recipes describe the most common types of CNC machine tools such as turret lathes, milling machines with single vice, with double vice, with rotary table, with divider etc.
On the basis of the defined recipes, comprehensive software was developed, including:
- a logic algorithm managing safety and communication between the COBOX by Cobot Planet station and the CNC machine tool;
- intuitive graphical interfaces for user operation of the station.
Thanks to the proprietary software, we reduce the time of implementation and training of operators, the time of changeover of the workstation to work with a new assortment, reduce the risk of errors and increase work safety. The COBOX by Cobot Planet solution, together with its unique software, has gained recognition from Universal Robot, which awarded Cobot Planet UR+ Certified status as a recommended system in the machine tending category in 2020.
The proprietary URCaps, which are plug-ins based on the Java development environment that integrate with Universal Robots' graphical programming interface, can be used to extend the basic functionality of the robot. They give the user access to new, user-friendly configuration screens to facilitate robot programming.
The algorithm defined by Cobot Planet for the operation of CNC machines has been prepared in such a way that the user's actions are mainly reduced to setting and correcting points and changing the position of the gripper fingers, which definitely makes the operators' work easier and more efficient. However, our team did not stop there - thanks to continuous work - the original environment is also available in Polish!
