Blue Series: Operation Manual

BLUE SERIES is a collection of laser tracking
sensors with wide range of applications.

Starting from welding industry and moving to
underwater inspection laser scanners of the
BLUE series can solve your needs.
Blue series
Operation manual
2018-2021 © Metrology LAB

Installation and operating Manual v1.2
Metrology LAB LTD
©2018-2021
SKYBLUE – OPERATIONS
Security and safety................................................................................................................................................ 6
Purpose of the system .......................................................................................................................................... 8
Laser tracker processes......................................................................................................................................... 8
Seam finding and positioning ........................................................................................................................... 8
Seam tracking ................................................................................................................................................... 8
Adaptive welding .............................................................................................................................................. 9
Quality inspection and control ......................................................................................................................... 9
System structure ................................................................................................................................................... 9
Sensor Models .................................................................................................................................................. 9
Measurement sensor (Head) .......................................................................................................................... 11
Controllers ...................................................................................................................................................... 12
HMI Display..................................................................................................................................................... 16
Connecting the system ................................................................................................................................... 17
Sensor connection ...................................................................................................................................... 17
Universal clamp ...................................................................................................................................... 17
3DOF Clamp ............................................................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
Connecting ............................................................................................................................................. 17
Air connection ........................................................................................................................................ 17
Water connection................................................................................................................................... 18
Cabling ............................................................................................................................................................ 18
Head to Controller ...................................................................................................................................... 18
HMI to Controller........................................................................................................................................ 18
Robot to Controller..................................................................................................................................... 18
SkyBlue Client ..................................................................................................................................................... 18
Starting the client ........................................................................................................................................... 18
User Interface ................................................................................................................................................. 19
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Parts of visualization screen ........................................................................................................................... 20
Title bar....................................................................................................................................................... 20
Control buttons .......................................................................................................................................... 21
Display and control ..................................................................................................................................... 21
Measurement Visualization ........................................................................................................................ 23
Object ..................................................................................................................................................... 23
Image ...................................................................................................................................................... 24
Preset parameters ...................................................................................................................................... 25
VIEW – OBJ .................................................................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
Image ............................................................................................................. Error! Bookmark not defined.
Presets management ...................................................................................................................................... 25
System ............................................................................................................................................................ 27
Presets for robot connectors...................................................................................................................... 31
Beckhof ................................................................................................................................................... 31
Slave operation .................................................................................................................................. 31
Master operations .............................................................................................................................. 33
Yaskaw Motoman - SBMOTO ................................................................................................................. 33
YASKAWA GSI ......................................................................................................................................... 36
YASKAWA MOTOEYE .............................................................................................................................. 36
ABB RWS................................................................................................................................................. 36
ABB SERIAL SB ........................................................................................................................................ 36
ABB LTAPP RTP ....................................................................................................................................... 36
ABB LTAPP TCP ....................................................................................................................................... 36
ABB LTPROTO ......................................................................................................................................... 36
ABB EGM ................................................................................................................................................ 36
KUAK KRL NETWORKING ........................................................................................................................ 36
KUAK RSI ................................................................................................................................................. 36
Robot state diagram ................................................................................................................................... 36
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Authority function protection .................................................................................................................... 36
Admin ..................................................................................................................................................... 37
Manager ................................................................................................................................................. 37
User ........................................................................................................................................................ 37
Changing Authority pins ......................................................................................................................... 37
Locking policy ............................................................................................................................................. 39
Updating of the system .............................................................................................................................. 40
Setting the client manually ......................................................................................................................... 41
Presets ............................................................................................................................................................ 41
Global parameters ...................................................................................................................................... 41
Joint types................................................................................................................................................... 42
Standard parallelogram plates ............................................................................................................... 42
Cut parallelogram plate .......................................................................................................................... 42
Fillet ............................................................................................................................................................ 43
Measurements ....................................................................................................................................... 43
Edge ............................................................................................................................................................ 44
Measurements ....................................................................................................................................... 44
Corner ......................................................................................................................................................... 45
Measurements ....................................................................................................................................... 45
Area ........................................................................................................................................................ 46
But .............................................................................................................................................................. 46
Measurements ....................................................................................................................................... 47
Lap .............................................................................................................................................................. 47
Measurements ....................................................................................................................................... 48
Vgroove ...................................................................................................................................................... 48
Measurements ....................................................................................................................................... 49
Area ........................................................................................................................................................ 49
Hv groove.................................................................................................................................................... 49
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Measurements ....................................................................................................................................... 50
Area ........................................................................................................................................................ 51
Sample Workflows. How To? .......................................................................................................................... 51
Start a new welding piece .......................................................................................................................... 51
Select robot type .................................................................................................................................... 51
Switch to Preset screen and create a new preset of the type you are going to weld............................ 52
Select the preset you just created.......................................................................................................... 53
Adjust image sensor parameters............................................................................................................ 53
Adjust the exposure time and gain .................................................................................................... 54
Adjust the antireflection filter............................................................................................................ 54
Adjust the value for point finder sensitivity. ...................................................................................... 54
Adjust the line finder sensitivity, min line length, max line gap. ....................................................... 54
Adjust geometric parameters and tolerances ........................................................................................ 55
You should have stable tracking point. .................................................................................................. 55
Save the preset (You can do this on any point above to avoid eventual loss of settings) ..................... 55
Scan the object with the robot to verify that the stability over the work piece if it differs from the place
of initial adjustment. .............................................................................................................................. 55
If needed repeat the procedure above to make tracking stable everywhere. ...................................... 55
Save any changes to the preset.............................................................................................................. 55
Start the robot program and: ................................................................................................................. 55
Select the desired preset from the robot or from the UI ....................................................................... 56
Start the measurement from the robot ................................................................................................. 56
Get data from the data array from the PLC and put it to the motion control application for correction.
................................................................................................................................................................ 56
Stop the measurement on the end of the work piece. .......................................................................... 56
Update the controller ................................................................................................................................. 56
Update the client ........................................................................................................................................ 57
Manual update ....................................................................................................................................... 57
The update from the client (Windows and LINUX) ................................................................................ 58
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Installing JAVA ........................................................................................................................................ 59
Install ...................................................................................................................................................... 60
Understanding SkyBlue algorithm .................................................................................................................. 60
BLUE system interaction with third party systems ............................................................................................. 62
Robot connectors ........................................................................................................................................... 62
SkyBlue internal protocol ............................................................................................................................... 62
RestApi – server is listening on port 8080 .................................................................................................. 62
Google Protocol Buffers ........................................................................ Error! Bookmark not defined.
RestApi Extended – server is listening on port 8081 .................................................................................. 62
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SECURITY AND SAFETY

SkyBlue is a peripheral low voltage device and there are quite few concerns of the operation of the device in
terms of operation stuff and environment. Still some notes as usual in industrial equipment has to be taken
into Account.
In below part of the document some special symbols will be used to denote hazardous behavior or potential
damages of the equipment or operational stuff.
Danger Warns that an accident will occur if the instructions are not followed,
resulting in a serious or fatal injury and/or severe damage to the product.
It applies to warnings that apply to danger with, for example, contact
with high voltage electrical units, explosion or fire risk, risk of poisonous
gases, risk of crushing, impact, fall from height, and so on.
Warning Warns that an accident may occur if the instructions are not followed
that can lead to serious injury, possibly fatal, and/or great damage to the
product. It applies to warnings that apply to danger with, for example,
contact with high voltage electrical units, explosion or fire risk, risk of
poisonous gases, risk of crushing, impact, fall from height, etc.
Electric Warns for electrostatic hazards which could result in severe damage to
discharge the product.
(ESD)
ELECTRICAL Warns for electrical hazards which could result in severe personal injury
SHOCK or death.
CAUTION Warns that an accident may occur if the instructions are not followed
that can result in injury and/or damage to the product. It also applies to
warnings of risks that include burns, eye injury, skin injury, hearing
damage, crushing or slipping, tripping, impact, fall from height, etc.
Furthermore, it applies to warnings that include function requirements
when fitting and removing equipment where there is a risk of damaging
the product or causing a breakdown.
LASER Laser radiation source which can injurie eye or skin.
RADIATION
NOTE Describes important facts and conditions.
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TIP/HINT Describes where to find additional information or how to do an operation

in an easier way.
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PURPOSE OF THE SYSTEM

The Blue Series is a set of different camera systems for measurements and scanning of objects attached to an
industrial robot or a cobot or an underwater robot. The camera delivers measurement data for the observed
objects. Some models are suitable for guiding of the robot in real-time including during welding. Some are
suitable for inspection. Some are used in positioning only.
LASER TRACKER PROCESSES

In the last 30 years a lot of development and progress has been done in laser scanning technologies related to
robot sensors. From expensive, complex, not reliable, and huge devices laser scanners evolved to useful and
important extension of welding robot systems. Laser tracker sensors are operating in front of the welding torch.
This leads to the fact that measurements are done a bit before the welding tool reach the weld point in the
seam. Because of that the time of collection of the data is very important. It has to be propagated to the robot
in a synchronous manner. Some robots accept a parameter called “aging” and based on that and a proper time
calibration procedure it is possible to evaluate the actual position of the correction being sent to the robot. It
is possible as well to make these computations inside the controller of the camera system and the blue series
provide full possibility for coordinate transformation and configurable time interpolation providing the robot
data for specific robot time.
Seam finding and positioning

Before starting a welding process usually robot program has an “approaching” stage where the robot is
programed to approach the target workpiece. During that process it is needed to precisely position the
workpiece in the robot case to achieve proper access to the welded joint. This task usually requires a lot of
work of the operators or customization/parametrization of the robot program for each workpiece. A seam
finding camera can solve this problem easily and provide simple positioning information for the robot. The
process is fast and provides good positioning. It is possible to make a fast offline scan of the workpiece and
introduce some corrections of the points in the program.
Seam tracking
Seam tracking delivers significantly more than seam finding. On one site workpieces are not always precisely
machined and a CAD drawing of a workpiece is not enough for programming the robot. Adapting the program
for each workpiece is of course a very undesirable operation. In addition, during welding the workpiece can be
distorted by the welding heat which causes improper weld or even stop of welding. If this is not monitored by
an operator the workpiece must be scrapped in most of the cases. All these cases can be handled by a seam
tracking camera. The seam trackers deliver fast and accurate information to the robot and influence the core
robot interpolation cycle trough specific protocols provided by robot manufacturers. This way the robot
program is kept simple, and details are adjusted with an intelligent measurement procedure built in the
software of the camera and the robot.
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Adaptive welding
The SEAM TRACKING function provide precise positioning data for the robot TCP, but the welding process may
be affected by other parameters as well. The welding gap depending on it’s size may require adaption of speed,
the voltage or the waive in case of waiving welds. The volume of the seam is as well important for detailed
optimization of the quality of the welds. The mismatch when it occurs because of welding heat may require
stop of the weld and adapting of the fixtures. Modern robots provide built in function to support adaptive
welding. To do so they need from the sensor system to provide adequate measurement information for several
geometric parameters of the seam.
Quality inspection and control

Quality inspection can be done before or after welding. Before welding it can follow the seam and verify the
quality of the plates or record the track in the robot and use it after in the welding case. After welding the
quality inspection is used to make visual qualification of the final job. To use quality inspection and control
functions the option SB Inspection must be purchased.
SYSTEM STRUCTURE
The BLUE systems series consists of Camera sensor, Controller and HMI Device (optional). All parts of the
system are interconnected with Ethernet cables.
For connection sensor-controller only the factory supplied cable must be used.
Sensor Models
There are several types of sensors taking part of the blue series. The different sensors are intended for different
applications. A summary can be seen in the table below
Model Type
Offline Blue
SmartBlue
WideBlue
DeepBlue
LightBlue
SkyBlue
6DBlue
SkyBlue
CODE SB LB MB WB DB 6B
Live Welding Applications Y N Y N Y N Y
Adaptive Welding Y N Y N Y N Y
Simulation Y Y Y Y Y Y Y
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Scanning and Positioning Y Y Y Y Y N Y
Offline Education N N N N N Y N
Underwater operation N N N Some Y N N

models
Reprocessing of scans Y Y Y Y Y Y Y
Measurement 2.5D 2.5D 2.5D 2.5D 2.5D 2.5D/6D 6D
Other parameters
Air knife Y Y Y N N N Y
Water Cooling Y N Y N N N Y
Laser beam 660nm 660nm 660nm 660nm/ 450nm N/A 660nm

450nm
Line Line Line Cross Line
Line
Process
Seam finding Y Y Y Y Y N Y
Seam tracking during welding Y N Y Y/N N N Y
Adaptive welding Y N Y N N N Y
Quality inspection Y Possible FULL FULL FULL N FULL
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Viewing Ranges
Most of the sensor types are available in different viewing ranges. The table below summarizes the available
viewing ranges:
CODE Stand Off Far end viewing Depth of View Precision Application
Short range 050 20mm 75mm 55mm 0.01mm Precise fine objects
Standard Range 120 110mm 230mm 120mm 0.05mm Regular workpieces of

different kind
Far Range 200 250mm 450mm 200mm 0.1mm Big workpieces,
complicated objects
Wide Blue 0500 500mm 1500mm 1000mm 1mm Far range
Range only for WB type positioning.
Deep Blue Range 0250 250mm 500mm 250mm 0.1mm Underwater
only for DB type inspection
On request custom viewing range can be ordered.
Labeling model codes
MT_VV_MRXX
• MT is the model type as stated in table model types - one of SB, LB,MB,WB,DB,6B
• VV is the version of the design – a two digit number for identification
• MRXX is the viewing range – is the viewing range as specified in Viewing range - CODE
Other technical parameters
Number of measurements per second 90-100 s-1

Exposure time 100µs – 18 ms
Gain 1-12 dB
Dynamic resolution 10bits
Measurement sensor (Head)

Measurement sensor does the actual physical measurements of objects located in the laser plane
LB/SBXX050
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LB/SBXX120 and LB/SBXX250
Measurement sensor is connected to controller to appropriate connection interface (see below controller) with
high quality cable.
Controllers
Controllers are equipped with multiple Ethernet ports. Three of the ports are preconfigured for operations of
the BLUE systems. The ports on the device are labeled accordingly to identify the connections.
SENSOR PORT – connects to sensor with factory provided cable. The port is preconfigured within the network
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ROBOT PORT – connects to robot – the port is 1G port but if the robot does not support 1G the fast Ethernet
(100M) is sufficient for communication of all the supported protocols. The IP network of the robot is configured
on the SYSTEM option of the GUI control client.
HMI PORT – connects to HMI device or user PC for configuring and monitoring of the BLUE device. The IP
network of the HMI device is preconfigure to net: 172.17.84.0 / 255.255.255.240 with IP 172.17.84.1
IP address 172.17.84.2 is preserved for the HMI tablet being an option in the system.
IPs 172.17.84.3 .. 172.17.84.14 can be used by PCs used as Client consoles simultaneously.
Several hardware versions of the controller with similar functionality are available in the BLUE systems
configuration. For standard operations all of them can support any of the existing BLUE sensors.
The controller type modules are as follows:
CB_01_0050
This model supports legacy low speed sensors operating at 50 fps.
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TO Robot Preset to 10.0.0.1 TO Sensor

Can be configured from the client Gray or Blue cable
TO HMI (green cable) Debug interface -

net: 172.17.84.1 / 255.255.255.240 DHCP
172.17.84.2 HMI
172.17.84.3.. 172.17.84.14 ext. PC
Power supply 24V

The interfaces of the controller are dedicated for specific purposes from left to right:
1. HMI display or switch to HMI and external pc.

2. Debug interface intended for servicing, remote access etc. The IP configuration is obtained by DHCP
on the network where the controller is connected.
3. OFF
4. Interface to robot. Preconfigured to 10.0.0.1/255.255.255.0. IP configuration can be changed from the
client.
5. SkyBlue sensor connection. 5m gray cable CAT7 and 10m blue cable CAT6A are provided.
6. Not used.
Sensor interface is POE enabled and controller is powering the sensor. IP address is factory defined and is not
intended to be changed on the field.
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CB_02_0100
This model supports high speed sensors operating at 100 fps. It is capable to scan objects ate rate of 75-90 fps
It can connect to robots trough Ethernet as well as using RS232/RS422/RS485. The outside look and connector
definitions of CB_02_100 are the same as in CB_02_050
CB_03_0100
The modern controller of BLUE systems it can process 100-120 fps in addition to Ethernet and serial
communications it support a set of opt isolated GPIO which can be connected directly to the robot or other
automation devices.
CB_04_0200
The latest member of the family. It is the most compact and powerful controller in the family with significant
expandability trough mini . It can process 200-250 fps.
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HMI Display
Provide user interface to the controller and parameterization of pattern matching for successful seam tracking.
TO Controller Power supply 24V
Power Supply
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Power supply between 8 and 35 V VDC has to be supplied to controller and HMI display (Head is powered by
the controller). Recommended value – 24V. Sample power supplies for controller and HMI display are provided
in the package.
Connecting the system

SENSOR CONNECTION
The sensor has to be mounted on the robot arm. Different mounting approaches are possible. BLUE systems
provide two standard clamps for mounting on the welding torch. It is possible as well to mount the camera on
the last ARM of the robot.
Mounting clamp
Two clamps are available on request. An universal clamp which
can be moved and around on the torch and the camera can be
placed in different vertical positions and 3DOF clamp which
allows in addition to select the angle between the torch and the
laser beam. A customer mounting option is as well possible. The
main thinks to consider when deciding about mounting:
• Mounting should be done in a way that the camera moving

together with the torch does not conflict with parts of the
workpiece.
• The workpiece should be in the viewing area of the camera in production position
• The laser beam should be at about 50mm behind the torch
Connecting
The sensor is connected to the controller done by factory qualified cable 5-10m long; CAT 7 or CAT6E Ethernet
cable. Shielding on both sides is very important (as per the cited standards). The cables are delivered with the
system. White 5m; Blue/Black 10m. In case the cable has screws for fixing the connector a special isolation is
provided as well. The isolation has to be placed on the screw RJ45 and after connecting to the sensor the screws
has to be screwed tightly.
Air connection
Controller connector Air and water connections are done
always after connecting the cable and
Air Air
secure it!
Water Water
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The air connection is done with tubes 4 mm external diameter using the upper two one touch connectors. Both
connectors needs to be filled. If one tube is used for air a Y type tube should be
used. The air should be cleaned from water and oil. The pressure should
regulated in the range 1-3 atmospheres. Use a regulator like e.g. this shown on
the right.
Water connection
Water connection is done using two tubes with external diameter 6mm. One
tube is incoming water and the other is outgoing. The pressure
should be kept between 3-6 atm. The water temperature should be
20 oC. The cooling capacity of 300W should be enough as cooling
is needed to protect the camera from the weld workpiece and not because of internal heating of the camera.
The provided flow should be 2L/min or more.
Always disconnect the water tubes first from the chiller side of the connection to avoid coolant
liquid blow on the camera. Protect you hand and еyes from coolant liquid!
Cabling
HEAD TO CONTROLLER
- done by factory qualified cable 3-10m long; CAT 7 or CAT6E Ethernet cable. Shielding on both sides is very
important (as per the cited standards). The cables are delivered with the system. White 5m; Blue 10m
HMI TO CONTROLLER
- sample cable provided by factory with 3m length; CAT5E + Shield minimum
ROBOT TO CONTROLLER
- RJ45 connector as defined above (not included in the package).
SKYBLUE CLIENT
Starting the client
To start the client from HMI display a link on HMI screen is provided (2). Before starting the client, it is advised
to start a standard Linux virtual keyboard (1).
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On a regular PC, with installed Java, connected with dedicated interface to the controller HMI port you can
start the client by double click of skyblue.jar file.
User Interface
The user interface provide functionality for configuration of the BLUE system and visualization of the
operations. The screen show below may differ from below view due to specific system configuration.
After starting of the client application a language can be selected:
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Since that the application operate on that language. To change the langauge the application should be
restarted. After selecting of the language the main application screen opens.
Title BAR
Preset Selector
General
Navigation
Measurement
Visualization Preset Parameters
Display and
control
Parts of visualization screen

TITLE BAR
Sensor
temperature
Version of controller Current frame No
Sensor model
Version of client Serial number of sensor Locking state

Time stamp of current frame
The title bar contains important information about the current system connected:
cl V: - Software version of client operating on a PC or on industrial touch screen (tablet)
Sensor M: - Sensor model – SB50 is the viewing range 001 is the version
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38oC – displays the temperature of the sensor on OfflineBlue the value is 0oC
SN: - Serial number of the sensor (stored in the sensor). If one connects a sensor to a controller the specific
sensor will be listed here.
Controller V: - Software version of the controller. It shows as well essential status information about the
operation of the system:
xxxxxx[ms] - Timestamp – timestamp of the visualized frame since start of the sensor in milliseconds
fc: (xxxxx) – frame counter of the number of frames since the sensor has been started
Locking state – discussed later in this document
CONTROL BUTTONS
START MEASUREMENT – switches on and off the measurements of the
system. BE CAREFULL THIS SWITCHES ON THE LASER
THERE SHOULD NOT BE ANYBODY IN FRONT OF THE
SENSOR LASER BEAM. The laser is 30 mW optical power
laser, which could be harmful for yeas of operator with
direct exposure.
VIEW – Switches to visualization and parameter adjustment screen
PRESETS – Switches to presets management screen.
SYSTEM – Switches to system configuration update and log collection.
EXIT – closes the client. On close the client switches the measurements
off if they have been switched on by this client (see state diagram and
locking later in the document).
DISPLAY AND CONTROL

The display and control holds different set of functions which depends on the configuration and mode of
operation of the system.
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Segments – when pushed the segments can be seen in Object view panel
as redline with green dots on the end
Points – when pushed points are displayed in Object panel as gray points
and as red points on the image.
Filtered – Shows the results of filtering of the image on the image panel
when pushed. When released the actually collected by the sensor image
is seen.
Lock – the button is used to lock and unlock functions related to camera
operations. (Please refer to Locking policy)
Save Images – starts recording of sequence of images on the client system. Pushing the Save Images on
switches to the image screen and shows on the title bar the number of images being saved. The rate of saving
may be lower than the real processing rate of the Blue system (not all incoming frames are stored). When
enough data is collected the button has to be pushed again and a zip file with the images is produced with time
stamp as aa name containing the desired record. The zip file can be put later to OfflineBlue with Reprocess
button and adjustments of preset can be done offline or sent to support team.
Reprocessing/Production – Switches between reprocessing and live sensor operations. When mode is
reprocessing the Reprocess button is enabled and package for reprocessing can be uploaded to the controller
of the BLUE system. OfflineBlue is always in reprocessing mode so always data can be uploaded. Uploading a
new package removes the old data. Once data is uploaded the switching of the START MEASUREMENT initiate
cycling over the uploaded before data.
Reprocess – reprocess button allows upload of packages for reprocessing. Once package is uploaded the
MEASUREMENT is switched ON and preset 9999999999 contains the original settings being used in the life
system.
Please note it is not possible to modify parameters which affect the physical sensor – EXPOSURE TIME
and GAIN. Changed parameters will be stored in the preset on saving but will not affect the images as
data has been already stored.
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MEASUREMENT VISUALIZATION
Object(OBJ)
The object screen shows the object on which the
camera points. And the different intermediate
processing results. In addition measurement
data and results of recognition are shown.
TPY, TPZ
The green rectangle on the upper left site of
Object area display the coordinates of the
tracking point depicted on the projection as a
red cross with yellow borders. The displayed
numbers are in mm. near to TPY and TPZ
coordinates small numbers are displayed to give
an impression about the stability of the tracking
point. These values are the differences between
two subsequent frames shown on the screen.
For stable tracking point this value would be of
the order of magnitude of 0.02-0.1 mm
depending on the specific camera model (please
refer to the camera models description). Shown here values are send to the robot together with
TIMESTAMP
The timestamp of the respective image is shown on the light blue rectangle in the upper right corner of the
Object area. The timestamp and the difference are measured in milliseconds.
PROJECTION
The projection area shows a black trapeze representing the viewing area of the sensor. The upper side of the
image is the near to the sensor side and the bottom is the far area of viewing. A grid with labels shows the
millimeter distances for better interpretation of the view.
MEASUREMENTS
On the lower part of the Object area the measurements are shown. Up to eight values can be displayed for a
frame. The measurements depends on the used preset (please refer to presets section).
RECOGNITION RESULTS
The lowest yellow area in Object shows information about the tracking results. The message
shows that the recognition went OK and there is no need of additional adjustment of parameters. There is a
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possibility where the recognition did not work. In these cases a red message is shown giving an indication what
is the problem. . The possible conditions are:
- Not enough segments – The number of visible segments is not enough for the specified preset.
- No candidate segment – There is not enough segments with proper angle to the view axe of the sensor.
Try to adjust the absolute viewing angle and it’s tolerance.
- No candidate pair – There is one or more pairs of segments which does not fit to the specified constraints
and there tolerances. Check the angles, the bandings,
- Validation not successful – The validations of parameters are not met. Ususaly these step include all
distances, maximum gap,
minimum length, width,
height etc. Check these kind
of constraints entered in the
preset definition.
Image
The Image tab can be selected by
pressing the tab IMG on top of
Visualization area. The sensor
parameters EXPOSURE TIME,
GAIN and ANTIREFLECTION
FILTER and POINT SENSITIVITY
has to be adjusted. The target is
to get clear image with proper
identification of the RED DOTS
on the expected object. The big
white spots should be excluded
by the filter. The EXPOSURE
TIME, GAIN ANTIREFLECTION
FILTER and POINT SENSITIVITY
can be changed from the grid in
PRESET PARAMETERS Area. The
functions Filtered image and
Points on the DISPLAY AND
CONTROL block are useful in this
operation.
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PRESET PARAMETERS
Preset parameters area contains a preset selector
(on top of the region), GRID with properties names
and values and sketch of the selected preset type
illustrating the meaning of geometric properties for
the specified preset type.
Presets management
Presets management screen allows creation of
presets and removal of not needed presets.
NEW button allows creation of new preset. When

created the preset gets number (must be unique in
the system) type and label. When created if
number of an existing preset is used the existing
preset is overwritten. Type of the preset can be
defined only during preset creation. Label is used to
allow the operator easier decision about the
purpose of the preset.
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DELETE button deletes the selected the selected preset.
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System
SkyBlue supports two variables for robot control - C – when set to 0 measurement is switched to OFF. When
set to 1 measurement is switched ON (the laser is powered and SkyBlue start to deliver measurement results.
out_sb_preset INT32 – when set the variable define which preset number to be used.
As return results SkyBlue provide an array of values in format compatible with the selected robot connector
type.
The results are scaled when need to 32bit integer numbers:
[0] – actual measurement status 0 – measurement is off 1 – measurement is on
[1] – actual preset - the number of the preset (joint number) being used by BLUE system.
[2] – time stamp of the frame in ms
[3] – age of the frame in ms. As the processing needs some time after the image has been collected the age
contains that time and can be used on the robot for precise synchronization.
[4] – error code of SkyBlue
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– 0 – no error
– 1 – Not enough segments – the expected object has more segments than SkyBlue can see. E.g.
looking for filet but only one segment is found.
– 2 – No candidate segment – The absolute angles do not allow selection of the needed number of
segments.
– 3 – No candidate pair – The relative angles do not fit to the observed object
– 4 – Validation not successful – The distance constraints do not fit. E.g. minimum lengths, maximum
gap etc.
– +100 (e.g. 100, 101, 102, 103, 104) – an attempt to set non existing preset from the robot has
been done. The preset remains the same as before the attempt.
[5] – Tracking point X coordinate in 10microns units (mm * 100). E.g. 1101 is 11.01mm
[6] – Tracking point Y coordinate in 10microns units (mm * 100). E.g. 2101 is 21.01mm
[7]..[14] – Measurement specific to the preset type. The measurements are multiplied by 100 as for the TP.
The angles are presented in radians*100. The distances in mm*100. The areas in mm2*100. The order of the
measurements is the same as displayed on SkyBlue measurement panel.
System function contains the options needed for robot configuration and management of logs and updates as
well a small simulator which shows the behavior of skyblue to robot communication.
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Robot IP address – the address of SkyBlue controller used to communicate with robot systems. The IP address
and mask should be from the robot network.
Robot Net Mask – the subnet-mask used for the robot connection
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The values above apply to the interface of the controller named TO Robot.
Robot type
Identify the type of the robot connected to SkyBlue. Currently Beckhoff, ABB, KUKA. Currently SkyBlue support
only ethernet connection to robots. To change the used robot types, one should select the type from the combo
box provided in the client, adjust the parameters and press the SET button. The selected robot type is stored
in the controller and will be used in future until changed to another type.
Robot simulation
The robot simulation panel allow simulation of robot behavior without robot. The robot SYM_ROB_ON button
sets the status of the system to measurements (as if it would have been set from the robot)
sbvars.out_sb_track INT32= 1. The robot SYM_ROB_OFF button sets the status of the system to
measurements (as if it would have been set from the robot) sbvars.out_sb_track INT32= 0. The Select preset
sets the sbvars.out_sb_preset INT32 to selected preset from the list of available presets. The robot can set
these variables using the ADS API. It is possible to set from the robot a non-existing preset if this happens an
error code will be returned in see above [4] – error code of SkyBlue
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PRESETS FOR ROBOT CONNECTORS

Beckhof
Slave operation
Beckhoff connector can operate as master and slave. For that purpose, SkyBlue contains an internal PLC
simulator. By default (the settings above) measurements and timing information are redirected to the internal
PLC. The internal PLC support the full set of Beckhoff TwinCat 3 protocol. This include subscription for variable
changes and this way SkyBlue may operate as a slave device to ADS compliant system. The PLC simulator is
accessible through the TO ROBOT port on the defined IP (10.0.0.1 in the sample) on port 48898.
Two variables are supported controlling SkyBlue:
sbvars.out_sb_track INT32 – when set to 0 measurement is switched to OFF. When set to 1 measurement is
switched ON (the laser is powered and SkyBlue start to deliver measurement results.
sbvars.out_sb_preset INT32 – when set the variable define which preset number to be used.
sbvars.sb_data[15] INT32 – results from camera measurements
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[0] – actual measurement status 0 – measurement is off 1 – measurement is on
[1] – actual preset
[2] – time stamp of the frame in ms
[3] – age of the frame in ms. As the processing needs some time after the image has been collected the age
contains that time and can be used on the robot for precise synchronization.
[4] – error code of SkyBlue
– 0 – no error
segments.
gap etc.
[5] – Tracking point X coordinate in 10microns units (mm * 100). E.g. 1101 is 11.01mm
[6] – Tracking point Y coordinate in 10microns units (mm * 100). E.g. 2101 is 21.01mm
[7]..[14] – Measurement specific to the preset type. The measurements are multiplied by 100 as for the TP.
The angles are presented in radians*100. The distances in mm*100. The areas in mm2*100. The order of the
measurements is the same as displayed on SkyBlue measurement panel.
Example to use Beckhoff server (Slave)

From the Beckhoff ADS device you can subscribe for changes of the defined variables. Using Beckhoff API you
can get callback when the variables are changed and retrieve the values in sbvars.sb_data[15] INT32. On the
other side you can use the two skyblue control variables to switch on measurements and select preset use
sbvars.out_sb_track INT32 and sbvars.out_sb_preset INT32. Several demos are available on Beckhoff site on
C++, C#, Java how to implement the subscription (…).
Here we give a Python example how to use Beckhoff Slave mode in an ADS enabled device:
A very well defined and structured library for Python implementation of ADS communication
https://pypi.org/project/pyads/. You need to install it as described in the page (for LINUX only the
pip install pyads is enough. For windows you need to have Beckhoff software Beckhoff software
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Python 3.x and then follow pip install pyads above. Go to

https://pyads.readthedocs.io/en/latest/quickstart.html to verify your installation. Go to
https://pyads.readthedocs.io/en/latest/quickstart.html#device-notifications to check registration of variable
change etc.
Master operations
From timing point of view, it may be more suitable to use SkyBlue as MASTER. This can be achieved by simple
configuration. Adjusting the parameters in Beckhoff connector to appropriate addresses of Beckhoff PLC will
switch SkyBlue to directly send data to actual PLC.
In master mode the operation of Beckhoff is quite similar to the slave mode. The difference is that in slave
mode SkyBlue is using the internal ADS server. In Master mode the parameters of the connection should be
changed to parameters of external (for SkyBlue) device.
ADS_Addr_of_PLC - is the ADS (Beckhoff standard) address of the external PLC
Name_of_SkyBlue_datablock – is the prefix added to SB variables (in and out) for the communication. The
default value is set to sbvars but it can be modified to any other data-block name in Beckhoff e.g. GVL (Global
variables).
PLC_ADS_IP_ADDR – the IP address of the PLC (Please NOTE should be in the same network as ROBOT IP
ADDRESS and ROBOT NET MASK.
PLC_ADS_IP_PORT – Should be set to the PORT on which the PLC listens for ADS commands.
sender_ams – The ads address of SkyBlue. Can be 127.0.0.1.1.1 as by default in most cases.
PLCHOSTNAME – The name of the PLC. Should be as defined in the PLC. Not very important. Used in logging
to identify the communication party.
ROUTNAME – Name of ADS router. Usually defined in the PLC. Not Critical for direct connections.
PLCUSERNAME – User in the PLC if any
PLCPASSWORD – Password in the PLC if any
For more details please consult Beckhoff addressing schemes and models.
Yaskaw Motoman - SBMOTO

Yaskawa Motoman robot connector is implemented with two components. A connector on SkyBlue site and a
recipient on Motoman site. The recipient is a MotoPlus application which is provided together with SkyBlue
software. The protocol uses UDP Sockets and a simple text format for transfer. All commands fit into one MTU
of the UDP:
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:<C> <val1> <val2> …
It is request response based where the requests are issued by SkyBlue and responses are generated by SBMoto
module.
The protocol implements (exclusively used by SkyBlue) the following commands:
R – send SkyBlue results to Yaskawa in the following format
:R sb_status sb_preset sb_timestamp sb_age sb_ERROR sb_TPX sb_TPY sb_m1 sb_m2

sb_m3 sb_m4 sb_m5 sb_m6 sb_m7 sb_m8 sbstartingvar sbcorrtype
sb_status – Current actual status of SkyBlue

sb_preset – Current preset of SkyBlue
sb_timestamp – Timestamp of SkyBlue result data
sb_age – Age of SkyBlue result data. (Time elapsed since the image has been taken until the date is delivered
to the robot
sb_ERROR – Error code of SkyBlue
– 0 – no error
segments.
gap etc.
sb_TPX – Y coordinate of the correction in 10-micron units

sb_TPY – Z coordinate of the correction in 10-micron units
sb_m1 – First measurement in 10-micron units or 0.01 Rad or 0.01 micron2
sb_m2 – Second measurement in 10-micron units or 0.01 Rad or 0.01 micron2
sb_m3 – Third measurement in 10-micron units or 0.01 Rad or 0.01 micron2
sb_m4 – Fourth measurement in 10-micron units or 0.01 Rad or 0.01 micron2
sb_m5 – Fifth measurement in 10-micron units or 0.01 Rad or 0.01 micron2
sb_m6 – Sixth measurement in 10-micron units or 0.01 Rad or 0.01 micron2
sb_m7 – Seventh measurement in 10-micron units or 0.01 Rad or 0.01 micron2
sb_m8 – Eight measurement in 10-micron units or 0.01 Rad or 0.01 micron2
sbstartingvar – The index of first Motoman variable to be used for storing results of SkyBlue. The other
results are stored in the subsequent indexes sbstartingvar..sbstartingvar+ 14 (the list of
parameters above)
sbcorrtype – Type of correction provided to MotoPluse in:
corrpath_src_p.grp_pos_info[0].pos_tag.data[3]
0: MP_CORR_BF_DTYPE;
1: MP_CORR_RF_DTYPE;
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2: MP_CORR_TF_DTYPE;
3: MP_CORR_UF_DTYPE;
Before calling mpMeiPutCorrPath(MP_SL_ID1, &corrpath_src_p). For more details please see
provided SBMoto source.
G – Get Yaskawa variables used to retrieve information from Yaskawa about measurement status (1
measurement ON, 0 measurement OFF). Another variable is used to define the active preset in SkyBlue.
The indexes of the variables used by SkyBlue Yaskawa plugin are indexed in SkyBlue YASKAWA configuration.
Motoman Robot should set these variables to control measurement status and active preset of SkyBlue. If
decided it can use measurement data in the SBMoto application or in some other place where measurements
are needed.
To configure Yaskawa Motoman few parameters has to be provided by SkyBlue operator.
Yaskawa IP – Ip address of Yaskawa robot connection to SkyBlue. Please note To Robot IP and To Robot Net
Mask should be set accordingly.
UDP PORT – Port on which Yaskawa robot is listening for SkyBlue commands.
Measurement Variable Index – Index measurement status variable from Motoman to SkyBlue
Preset Variable Index – Index preset variable from Motoman to SkyBlue
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Data Variable Index – Index of first measurement variable from SkyBlue to MotoMan.
Correction Type – Correction type as specified above.
YASKAWA GSI
YASKAWA MOTOEYE
ABB RWS
ABB SERIAL SB
ABB LTAPP RTP
ABB LTAPP TCP
ABB LTPROTO
ABB EGM
Skyblue Abb-Egm connector is listening on a port 6510 by default and interpreting ABB-EGM protocol with
UcUDP top level.
KUAK KRL NETWORKING

TBD
KUAK RSI
TBD
ROBOT STATE DIAGRAM

TBD
AUTHORITY FUNCTION PROTECTION

The BLUE systems support authorization for some functions when they are critical for some reasons. For
example updating the software of the system can be done with Admin level of authorization.
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The system supports three levels of authorization, Admin, Manager, User. A higher level can authorize a lower
level. As an example if a USER PIN is requested by the system the MANAGER and the ADMIN pin will pass the
authorization too. When authorization is done the authorization status is remembered for about 5 min in the
client and reentering of the respective pins is not required unless the client is restarted or the 5 min since last
authorization expires.
Admin
The Admin authorization level is the highest protection level in the system. Critical operations in the system
are protected by admin level authority pin.
The factory default for Admin authorization is 999999.
Manager
Manager authorization level is required for important but still not critical system operations like for example
unlocking the system during lock from the Robot or from another client.
The factory default for manager level of authorization is 555555
User
The user level of control if applied is used in the initial start of the client. If user authorization is required the
user is asked to enter PIN on start of the client. The factory default for user authorization is empty – no
authorization is required.
Changing Authority pins

Modifying the authority pin values can be done from System->Authority Setup
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Where after Admin Authorization the following dialogue appears:
It is possible with this function to modify the PINs of the different levels by entering and re-entering the new
desired pins. The PINS can be up to 6 digits long. It is possible to view what we are typing by pressing the eye
icon on the right site of the dialogue (same as when pins are entered for authorization requests).
The factory settings for User level is “empty” which means no authorization is needed for User level operations.
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Please note! If Admin authorization level is left without pins (empty fields) there will be no
Authorization required by the system in no any cases. If Manager level is left “empty” the Manager
Authentication will not be required any more in the system.
LOCKING POLICY
Locking is needed by the system to avoid occasional operations with SkyBlue from the GUI client. If this happens
during robot operations it may affect the operations of the ROBOT. E.g. if the preset is changed during welding
this may destroy the tracking quality. If this occurs the robot will be “blind” for seam tracking. Because of this
when the measurement is started from the robot the other clients are locked. They still show the tracking
information but it is not possible to switch on/off measurement, change preset, change parameters in the
preset, update the controller etc.
In case the operator still wants to change some of the above parameters it can explicitly unlock the client and
make the required modifications. The same behavior applies to multiple GUI clients but they are not prioritized.
The first client locks the system. When the system is locked by a GUI client the robot will lock it if it switches
the measurements ON. The second client connected to the system will be in locked state – can not change
parameters. The second client however can unlock the system and take over for operations. In this case the
first client is locked and cannot make changes on the operations. As the operation of taking over the locking
can be dangerous (e.g. destroy the robot tracking) there is a protection with pin code with manager level of
authority.
On the user interface the locking state is shown as last section on the title bar
Sensor model Version of controller Current frame No
Version of client Serial number of sensor Time stamp of current frame Locking state
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Type of
locker –
client or
robot
Unique ID of Locking ID of locker

the client Status
The system is locked by the active client.
- When second client is started the system is still locked by the first client. The second
client cannot change parameters and states on the screen but can observe results.
If needed the client [2] can unlock the system
Unlock by pressing
this button
- The client ID is 5 but the robot (ID 6) took over and locked the system. When robot starts
(Including internal robot simulation) it always locks the system. In the client pool the first client locks. When
robot starts it override the client locks and lock the system.
UPDATING OF THE SYSTEM

Update of the controller is done by selection of factory distributed xxxxx.deb file. For update of the client a
xxxxxxx.jar file is used (Please use only factory provided update files!)
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SETTING THE CLIENT MANUALLY

The client is a java application contained in a single jar file.
To start the client on windows:
1. Java 7 JRE has to be installed

2. Double click on the jar file starts the application or in the cmd console use javaw -jar xxxxx.jar
The controller should be connected to the “green” cable connector with the PC. IP addresses should be
conformant to spec above.
Presets
Presets are collection of parameters intended to track specific workpiece. Presets have types and parameters.
There are parameters global for all preset types and parameters specific to the geometry of the type.
Presets in SkyBlue are designed taking into account the basic welding standards. During welding two plates are
joined with arc welding process. Two types of plates are usually available for welding:
GLOBAL PARAMETERS
In front of all there are some global parameters not related to the specific shape of a joint:
Exposure time[ms] – the sensor can collect light for different time. The supported time range is 0.1ms to 18ms
(to keep the rate of produced frames high enough).
Gain[dB] – in addition to exposure the gain allows making the image lighter. Value can change between 1db
and 15db.
Antireflection Filter – antireflection filter is
Point sensitivity – Controls the collection of points by the algorithm. Range is between 1 and 10. 1 allow more
points 10 reduces the number of points. At 1 a noisy image will give a lot of outliers but a dark image will deliver
points. At 10 the chosen points are reduced and filtering of data takes place.
Line sensitivity – Line sensitivity controls the ease the algorithm produces lines. Value can be changed from 1
to 100. 1- stands for more lines (more noise). 100 heavy filtering of the lines.
Minimum line – minimum length of accepted line. The parameter is a threshold which define which segments
are considered. Segments shorter than this value are removed to filter the noise. Usually set from 0.5mm to 3
mm
Maximum gap – maximum gap between two segments to aggregate them into a single line. If the gap between
two segments is smaller than this value the segments are aggregated into one segment. Please be careful with
this value it should be smaller than expected gaps in BUT or other similar presets. Typical values 0.5m to 1 mm
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O - Absolute angle and Absolute angle tolerance – angle of observation of the working pies. Defined below
and on the client as green line.
Minimum plate length – the minimum plate length is used to define what part of the plate has to be visible to
consider the target template found.
JOINT TYPES
Standard parallelogram plates
The standard plates manufactured in steel factories.
Cut parallelogram plate

To increase the joining area between plates which has to be weld often the place is cut on the joint side.
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Other shapes of plates can be used as well but usually weld joints are covered by these two profiles.
These plates can be joined with other plates of the same kind in several different ways:
FILLET
Two parallelogram plates joined at some angle (usually but not necessarily 90o). The algorithm is looking for
two segments as shown below.
A - fillet_angle and fillet_angle_tol – angle between plates and tolerance of the angle [deg] the default value is
set to 90[deg] the tolerance default is 45[deg] to be able to catch initially any filet object. It is recommended
to straiten it to 10 [deg] if possible and adjust the value of the angle if needed.
P - fillet_minplate – minimum length of the plates [mm] . The minimum part of the filet plates seen on the left
and on the right side of the filet. Recommended value is 3 mm. A bigger value will require bigger part of the
filet to be seen for getting recognition. A smaller value may lead to catching false positives due to noise.
fillet_track_point A – does not need selection as it is a single option – on the crossing point of the two plates
Measurements
• Angle from camera [deg] in GUI; [rad]*1000 in robot
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• Filet measured angle [deg] in GUI; [rad]*1000 in robot

• Filet gap [mm] in GUI; [mm]*1000 in robot
• Left plate length [mm] in GUI; [mm]*1000 in robot
• Right plate length [mm] in GUI; [mm]*1000 in robot
EDGE
Edge is not a typical welding target. It is useful for finding the end of a plate (expecting usually but not
necessarily 90o angle between both segments). As seen below the algorithm is looking for 2 segments.
• A - corner_angle and corner_angle_tol – angle between plates and tolerance of the angle [deg]
• P - corner_minplate – minimum length of the plates [mm]
• corner_track_point A – does not need selection as it is a single option
Measurements
• Measured angle [deg] in GUI; [rad]*1000 in robot
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CORNER
Two parallelogram plates joined at some angle in the opposite orientation than fillet (usually but not
necessarily 90o). All four elements of the corner should be visible on the image to obtain a finding.
• A - corner_angle and corner_angle_tol – angle between plates and tolerance of the angle [deg]
• P - corner_minplate – minimum length of the plates [mm]
• T – corner plate thickness and thickness tolerance
corner_track_point A,B,C,D,E
Measurements
• Measured angle [deg] in GUI; [rad]*1000 in robot
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• Gap [mm] in GUI; [mm]*1000 in robot

• Left plate thickness [mm] in GUI; [mm]*1000 in robot
• Right plate thickness [mm] in GUI; [mm]*1000 in robot
Area
Area is calculated as a triangle between tracking points B, C, A
BUT
Two parallelogram plates joined one near to the other with some distance between them. The plates are placed
parallel.
• P - butt_minplate – minimum length of plates [mm]

• M-maxmismatch – maximum mismatch of plates [mm]
• A-butt_maxdistortion – maximum distortion angle [deg]
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• W-butt_width – width of the gap between plates [mm]

• but_track_point A, B, C – supported tracking points: end of right plate-A, center between plates - B,
left plate -C
Measurements
The following measurements are calculated with this preset:

• Width of but [mm] in GUI; [mm]*1000 in robot
• Distortion angle [deg] in GUI; [rad]*1000 in ROBOT
• Mismatch [mm] in GUI; [mm]*1000 in robot
• Width of gap [mm] in GUI; [mm]*1000 in robot
LAP
The LAP is a joint formed between two plates placed as a step.
Two parallelogram plates joined one on top of the other. The plates are placed parallel. Please NOTE all 3
segments shown below should be visible to obtain a tracking.
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• H- lap_stepheight and tolerance – height of lap and tolerance [mm]

• A - lap_bending – Maximal angle between plates [deg]
• P - lap_minplate – minimum length of the plates [mm]
• lap orientation (left/right)
• lap_track_point A,B,C
Special comments: Lap preset is defined with 3 segments. All 3 segments should be visible for that version of
the preset.
Measurements
• Step height [mm] in GUI; [mm]*1000 in robot
• Bending angle [deg] in GUI; [rad]*1000 in robot
• Upper plate length [mm] in GUI; [mm]*1000 in robot
• Lower plate length [mm] in GUI; [mm]*1000 in robot
VGROOVE
V groove is used when two cut plates has to be weld.
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• P - vgroove_minplate – minimum length of horizontal part of plates [mm]

• W - vgroove_width and tol – Width of V as drawn above [mm]
• H - vgroove_height and tol – Height of V as drawn above [mm]
• A - vgroove_bending – Maximum angle of distortion of both plates [deg]
• G - vgroove_maxgap – Maximum gap of V [mm]
• M - vgroove_maxmismatch – Maximum mismatch of both plates [mm]
• vgroove_track_point A, B, C, D, E;
A – left plate cut edge, B – right plate cut edge, C – crossing between cut parts(bottom of V), D –
Middle between A and B, E – centre of A, B, C
Measurements
• Bottom gap [mm] in GUI; [mm]*1000 in robot
• Area [mm2] in GUI; [mm2]*1000 in robot
• Bending of both plates [deg] in GUI; [rad]*1000 in robot
• Top width [mm] in GUI; [mm]*1000 in robot
• Height [mm] in GUI; [mm]*1000 in robot
• Mismatch [mm] in GUI; [mm]*1000 in robot
• Left plate [mm] in GUI; [mm]*1000 in robot
• Right plate [mm] in GUI; [mm]*1000 in robot
Area
SkyBlue calculate for V preset a triangular area located between TP. A, B, C
HV GROOVE
HV groove is a joint formed by one cut plate and one parallelogram plate. If the material needed for strong
joint is still not enough special cutting of one or both plates is possible.
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Please note the angle of watching the plate should be selected in a way that all three segments shown below
are seen.
• PH - hvgroove_minplatehorizontal – minimum length of horizontal plate [mm]

• PV - hvgroove_minplatevertical – minimum length of vertical plate [mm]
• W - hvgroove_width and tolerance – Width of the welding groove [mm]
• H - hvgroove_height and tolerance – Height of welding groove [mm]
• A hvgroove_bending – The expected angle between vertical plate and cut plate is 900. This parameter
defines the maximum deviation from this angle 00 in the ideal case. [deg]
• G- hvgroove_maxgap – The maximum allowed bottom gap of the object [mm]
• orientation (left/right)
• hvgroove_track_point A, B, C, D, E
Measurements
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• Bottom gap [mm] in GUI; [mm]*100 in robot

• Area [mm2] in GUI; [mm2]*100 in robot
• Bending angle [deg] in GUI; [rad]*100 in robot
• Width [mm] in GUI; [mm]*100 in robot
• Height [mm] in GUI; [mm]*100 in robot
• Horizontal plate length [mm] in GUI; [mm]*100 in robot
• Vertical plate length [mm] in GUI; [mm]*100 in robot
Area
Sample Workflows. How To?

START A NEW WELDING PIECE
Select robot type
Robot type is selected in System tab (1) and then chose the Robot Type from the combo box (2). Fill in the
parameters for the specific robot type (3) and press the SET (4) button to store the parameters and robot type.
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Switch to Preset screen and create a new preset of the type you are going to weld
Select preset screen (1) and create appropriate preset(2) for your welding piece.
On the New preset dialogue select Preset number (1) – Sky Blue is proposing automatically a preset number
not used till now. Enter description (used to identify the preset purpose) (2). Select preset type depending on
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the weld piece in use (3) (see above Presets description for supported preset types) . When ready press the OK
button (4).
The newly created preset appears in the preset list.
Select the preset you just created
Adjust image sensor parameters

Point the robot so that the camera see the welding workpiece. Switch to View screen (1), select IMG tab (2)
and start measurement (3).
When measurement is started the image seen by the sensor shows the visible work piece.
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The red points are the points found by the algorithm.

The button Points show and hide the points.
Adjust the exposure time and gain

To adjust, modify first the exposure time. Exposure
time normally reduces noise so higher exposure will
keep the noise low. If exposure time can not provide
sharp enough image the gain can be increased. The
reasonable maximum value for Exposure time is
10ms. Beyond 10 ms exposure time the gain has to be increased to obtain good visibility.
Adjust the antireflection filter

Antireflection filter
removes from the
image areas with
homogeneous
intensity. I.e. white
spots from reflections
or welding. A value of
30px (provided as
default) is a reasonable
value. The actual result
of the filter can be seen on the right image. If points are
seen well do not modify the default. Please note! When
adjusting the antireflection keep in mind that during
welding white spots can appear so the filter will be effective at that time even
if improvement can not be seen during adjustment.
Adjust the value for point finder sensitivity.

The point finder sensitivity can be adjusted from 0 to a value 8-10. When increasing the value less points will
be seen. Select a value which removes as much of noisy points as you can.
Adjust the line finder sensitivity, min line length, max line gap.
The sensitivity is a value which specify how lines are determined. The higher the value the more intensive
production of lines is ongoing. The shorter lines disappear and the longest only remain. This can be seen in red
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on OBJ tab. Reasonable values can considered between 20 and 30 (50 in extreme cases). Min line len is the
minimal length of a line which are accepted by the system. Please note: the values will aggregate lines.
Adjust geometric parameters and tolerances

There is a geometric parameter which is required by all preset types - the camera view angle and it’s tolerance.
The general angle is defined for all preset types based on the angle to the right plates.
The other parameters are angles and distances specific for the defined preset. In all plates the minimum plate
length defines how much of the actual object has to be seen to get the tracking done.
You should have stable tracking point.

A feeling about the stability can be obtained following the changes of the TP (the small numbers on the GUI
after TP value) on a fixed position on the workpiece
Save the preset (You can do this on any point above to avoid eventual loss of
settings)
Once you have reached a stable result on a given point on the workpiece press the save button on
Scan the object with the robot to verify that the stability over the work piece if it
differs from the place of initial adjustment.
If needed repeat the procedure above to make tracking stable everywhere.
Save any changes to the preset.
Start the robot program and:
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Select the desired preset from the robot or from the UI
Start the measurement from the robot
Get data from the data array from the PLC and put it to the motion control
application for correction.
Stop the measurement on the end of the work piece.
UPDATE THE CONTROLLER

To update the controller you need to have a file from the manufacturer of the type skyblue-controller-x.y.z-
Linux.deb where x.y.z is the version you are updating with. You can update a second time with the same version
without problems.
To update please make your update file accessible from the client (if needed use USB flash).
1. On the client click System (1 on the screen shot below):
2. Select Update Controller (2)
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3. Select the update file (3)

4. Choose Open (4)
In few seconds the update is done. You may restart the client and on the top bar you should see the new
version.
UPDATE THE CLIENT

Manual update
The client is a JAR file (java application). To update the client, you need to replace the old jar file with the new
one. To start the client on Windows with installed java 7 you need to double click on the jar file or make a
shortcut to the jar file and use the shortcut. You can as well use the command “java -jar skyblue.jar”. On Linux
you can start the application from a console on Linux with the command “java -jar skyblue.jar”.
On Debian Linux (the HMI device) you can make a shortcut to the client by creating a file:
[Desktop Entry]
Name=ICY
Exec=java -jar '/home/skyblue/skyblue.jar'
Terminal=false
Type=Application
The client is located in /home/skyblue/skyblue.jar
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The update from the client (Windows and LINUX)
You should have the new client accessible from your file system (just copied on windows or on a flash stick on
the HMI)
Select the folder where you have the new jar sfile:
You should see the jar file in that folder (the screen filters for jar files only).
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Select the jar (4) and press Open (5). The update takes less than 1s. After the update you need to restart the
client and you will see a newer version on the top bar:
As mentioned above SkyBlue controller has several Ethernet connections. To simplify usage the connections
are with predefined fixed IP addresses. The IP address of a computer interface running skyblue client must be
set to an IP in the range
Installing JAVA
To install Java on a windows PC:
Execute jre-7u80-windows-i586.exe to install for Windows 32. To install for windows 64 use jre-7u80-windows-
x64.exe. Follow the instructions on the following screens.
To install Java on Linux PC:
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For Linux choose the appropriate distribution from jre-7u80-linux-i586.rpm, jre-7u80-linux-x64.rpm or jre-
7u80-linux-i586.tar.gz, jre-7u80-linux-x64.tar.gz.
For tar.gz distributions follow the steps:
Install
The instructions below are for installing version Java 7 Update 80 (7u80).
Note about root access: To install Java in a system-wide location such as /usr/local, you must login
as the root user to gain the necessary permissions. If you do not have root access, install Java in
your home directory or a subdirectory for which you have write permissions.
1. Change to the directory in which you want to install. Type:
cd directory_path_name
For example, to install the software in the /usr/java/ directory, Type:
cd /usr/java/
2. Move the .tar.gz archive binary to the current directory.

3. Unpack the tarball and install Java
tar zxvf jre-7u80-linux-x64.tar.gz
The Java files are installed in a directory called jre1.8.0_73 in the current directory. In this
example, it is installed in the /usr/java/jre1.7.0_80 directory. When the installation has
completed, you will see the word Done.
4. Delete the .tar.gz file if you want to save disk space.
Understanding SkyBlue algorithm

The basic procedure in SkyBlue core includes the following steps on each frame produced by the CMOS sensor:
1- Collection of the frame – the image collection is done with fast controller located in the sensor which
collects 10bits/pixel images with real time speed of the sensor. Parameters affecting quality of
collected image (frame) are available in all presets:
• Exposure time[ms] – the sensor can collect light for different time. The supported time range is
0.1ms to 18ms (to keep the rate of produced frames).
• Gain[dB] – in addition to exposure the gain allows making the image lighter. Value can change
between 1db and 15db.
• Antireflection filter [px] – This is a special high-pass filter. It filters the large areas with
homogeneous intensity like e.g. large spots from excessive light reflective surface etc.
The effect of the filter can be checked and adjusted on the image tab using the “Filter” button in
the function area of the client.
2- Point finding – Includes a procedure for extracting points from the visible object (shown in black in
VIEW-OBJ and in RED in VIEW-IMG). Parameters affecting point finding are available in all presets:
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• Point sensitivity – Controls the collection of points by the algorithm. Range is between 1.0 and
10.0 . 1 allow more points 10 reduces the number of points. At 1 a noisy image will give a lot of
outliers but a dark image will deliver points. At 10 the chosen points are reduced and filtering of
data takes place.
3- Line finding – uses a transformation of the points known as HOUGH transform to convert them in
linear segments. The following exposed parameters affect the line finding algorithm:
• Line sensitivity – Line sensitivity controls the ease the algorithm produces lines. Value can be
changed from 1 to 100. 1- stands for more lines (more noise). 100 heavy filtering of the lines.
• Minimum line – minimum length of accepted line.
• Maximum gap – maximum gap between two lines to aggregate them into a single line.
4- Geometric combinations for finding the expected shape – the obtained segments are combined
according to defined geometric parameters in the selected preset. If there is a successful match the
object is “recognized” by SkyBlue and calculations can be done.
5- Calculation of Tracking point and measurements – If a successful match of object happened on
previous stage tracking point and other measurements can be calculated. In each preset tracking point
is defined as one or more options. Measurements depend on the preset type and are useful for
adapting the robot behavior (welding current, stop of welding, quantity of welding material, etc.).
These parameters allow additional improving of welding quality when used. The tracking points are
usually calculated as cross-section of two or more segments. This is done to improve the stability of
the obtained result.
Why are geometric parameters needed to be specified in SkyBlue? During welding sometimes, the work piece
can be bended because of the high temperature or big size etc. In such a case the welding should be stopped.
If a parameter is not fitting to the entered values and tolerances (e.g. bending angle between plates, gap etc.)
SkyBlue will stop to deliver tracking point, which would be a reason to stop the welding and investigate the
issue.
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BLUE SYSTEM INTERACTION WITH THIRD PARTY

SYSTEMS
The main third party systems of concern for SkyBlue are welding robots.
Robot connectors
SkyBlue internal protocol

SkyBlue supports an internal proprietary protocol which can be used to control the sensor. It has two parts –
RestApi for commands and Google Protocol Buffers (GPB) for data exchange.
RESTAPI – SERVER IS LISTENING ON PORT 8080

RESTAPI EXTENDED – SERVER IS LISTENING ON PORT 8081
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Blue Series: Operation Manual

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BLUE SERIES is a collection of laser tracking

sensors with wide range of applications.

2018-2021 © Metrology LAB

Purpose of the system .......................................................................................................................................... 8

Laser tracker processes......................................................................................................................................... 8

Seam finding and positioning ........................................................................................................................... 8

Seam tracking ................................................................................................................................................... 8

Adaptive welding .............................................................................................................................................. 9

Quality inspection and control ......................................................................................................................... 9

System structure ................................................................................................................................................... 9

Sensor Models .................................................................................................................................................. 9

Measurement sensor (Head) .......................................................................................................................... 11

Connecting the system ................................................................................................................................... 17

Sensor connection ...................................................................................................................................... 17

Universal clamp ...................................................................................................................................... 17

3DOF Clamp ............................................................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.

Air connection ........................................................................................................................................ 17

Head to Controller ...................................................................................................................................... 18

SkyBlue Client ..................................................................................................................................................... 18

Starting the client ........................................................................................................................................... 18

User Interface ................................................................................................................................................. 19

Parts of visualization screen ........................................................................................................................... 20

Control buttons .......................................................................................................................................... 21

Display and control ..................................................................................................................................... 21

Measurement Visualization ........................................................................................................................ 23

Preset parameters ...................................................................................................................................... 25

VIEW – OBJ .................................................................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.

Image ............................................................................................................. Error! Bookmark not defined.

Presets management ...................................................................................................................................... 25

Presets for robot connectors...................................................................................................................... 31

Slave operation .................................................................................................................................. 31

Master operations .............................................................................................................................. 33

Yaskaw Motoman - SBMOTO ................................................................................................................. 33

YASKAWA GSI ......................................................................................................................................... 36

YASKAWA MOTOEYE .............................................................................................................................. 36

ABB SERIAL SB ........................................................................................................................................ 36

ABB LTAPP RTP ....................................................................................................................................... 36

ABB LTAPP TCP ....................................................................................................................................... 36

ABB LTPROTO ......................................................................................................................................... 36

ABB EGM ................................................................................................................................................ 36

KUAK KRL NETWORKING ........................................................................................................................ 36

KUAK RSI ................................................................................................................................................. 36

Robot state diagram ................................................................................................................................... 36

Authority function protection .................................................................................................................... 36

Changing Authority pins ......................................................................................................................... 37

Locking policy ............................................................................................................................................. 39

Updating of the system .............................................................................................................................. 40

Setting the client manually ......................................................................................................................... 41

Global parameters ...................................................................................................................................... 41

Standard parallelogram plates ............................................................................................................... 42

Cut parallelogram plate .......................................................................................................................... 42

Sample Workflows. How To? .......................................................................................................................... 51

Start a new welding piece .......................................................................................................................... 51

Select robot type .................................................................................................................................... 51

Select the preset you just created.......................................................................................................... 53

Adjust image sensor parameters............................................................................................................ 53

Adjust the exposure time and gain .................................................................................................... 54

Adjust the antireflection filter............................................................................................................ 54

Adjust the value for point finder sensitivity. ...................................................................................... 54

Adjust geometric parameters and tolerances ........................................................................................ 55

You should have stable tracking point. .................................................................................................. 55

Save any changes to the preset.............................................................................................................. 55

Start the robot program and: ................................................................................................................. 55