A .NET application searching for data in a log file of the KUKA industrial welding robot

Abstract

In a robotic workstation designed and created from KUKA industrial robots, manipulators and its control, each of these robots is equipped with some tool, for example, welding pliers. This tool is mounted on the mounting flange of a robot. During tool calibration, the robot operator assigns the working point to this tool. This point is called the TCP (Tool Center Point). All motions of the TCP are controlled by a robot program. By this is addressed through which points the TCP passes during its motion. Each particular KUKA industrial robot of an assembled robotic workstation is tested by the operator in the test operation. The precision of the TCP motion is measured and it is represented by points through which the TCP passes. During testing of a certain activity of a robot it happens many times that the operator finds that the TCP of a robot tool does not perform motions along the prescribed path with a sufficient precision. Therefore he must add other points to this path to refine it. It happens also often that during testing of a certain activity of a robot the operator must change the coordinates of some points, sometimes several times, to refine or to adjust the motion path of the TCP of a robot tool. These additional and modified points identify problematic spots of a motion path of the TCP. The operator performs all additions of new points and changes of the coordinates of existing points of the TCP path through the KCP (KUKA Control Panel) teach pendant in a robot program in the KUKA Robot Language (KRL) and the KUKA System Software (KSS) records them into the appropriate files to the hard drive of the robot control PC. In addition, all the operator actions on the KCP are automatically logged by KSS and he can generate the robot log file Logbuch.txt by KSS. All added and modified path points of the TCP in the robot program during the test operation of the robot are recorded into this log file, too. These points provide important information about the TCP path sections for the operator, with which were problems during testing of a certain activity of the robot. During retesting of this activity of the robot it is therefore necessary to focus specially on these sections of the path, i.e. on the points forming these sections of the path. Thus, the operator quickly needs find out which points he added to the TCP path and also coordinates of points of this path which were repeatedly modified in the robot control program. We have created the .NET search application that is able to connect to the control PC of the KUKA industrial welding robot and find on its disk the log file Logbuch.txt. Then, in this file, according to the user instructions it searches for and summarizes relevant new founded and repeatedly modified the TCP path points in the robot program during test operation of selected activity of a robot. The paper deals with data files of the robot program in which are stored coordinates of the path points of the TCP robot tool, and with outputs of our .NET search application searching this log file of the KUKA industrial welding robot.