What are Motion Instructions?

The robot is simply a computer that can interact with the physical world. For it to perform
tasks as we desire them, we need to tell the robot the processes involved in doing so.

The FANUC motion instructions involve teaching the destination point(s), the type of
motion to reach it, the speed it will move, the termination type, and any other special
Motion Instructions actions or considerations to take in the process of moving to the destination.
Introductory Lab
Industrial Robotics & Automation
Written By Michael Eagan
Motion Instructions:
SUNY Erie Community College

Motion
Type Path Taken Usage:

Whenever the path taken is

A straight line from the current
Linear required to be straight and
position to the destination
without deviation

Since Joint moves are faster,

The most efficient method of joint should be used
Prerequisite Knowledge: Joint reconfiguring the joints to reach whenever it doesn’t matter
Safety the destination what path it takes to reach
Teach Pendant Navigation the destination
Jogging and Clearing Alarms
Required Preliminary Setup:
A Pointer Tool with a selected Tool Frame pre- Whenever the path needs to
taught to tip. A circular path that begins at the be a radius around an
(May use tool from Tool Frame Lab) current position, reaches the first arbitrary center. The path is
Medium-Sized Box Circular point taught, and continues to the calculated much like a linear
Paper at Back of Lab second point taught. These are move in that it must follow
Robot at HOME Position known as midpoint and endpoint. the curved line made by the
circle.

In this lab, we will learn to create a simple motion program and explore Linear, Joint, and
Circular motion types.

This guide is intended to demonstrate and explain Motion Instructions and Program Creation on FANUC controllers.
All labs assume HandlingTool software.
Start by opening the Select screen with the SELECT button on the physical
keypad.

This opens a screen listing all available programs on the robot. We will be
making our own from scratch, so you’ll want to hit the softkey CREATE.

*Softkeys are the options on the bottom of the touchscreen that change depending on which screen
you have available and what items you have selected. You can either touch them on screen or hit the
corresponding F-Key below it.

We will be creating a program to follow the shape drawn on the last page.
Remove this page from the packet and tape it to the box placed somewhere
within the circle on the bed.

A utility will pop up titled “Create Teach Pendant Program”

The first thing you need to do is name it. On the bottom right, several text-entry
options will appear. You will hit “Options/Keybd”. This will add a
KEYBOARD softkey on the rightmost side. Hit it.

For this lab, you will name it the semester, an underscore, then your initials. To
receive credit for labs, you must always name it using the syntax given within the
lab. The syntax for this lab is below:

Semester & Year Underscore Your Initials

F21 _ MRE

Example for Fall of 2021: F21_MRE

No spaces are allowed in program names, and they must always start with a
letter. They can only contain letters, numbers, and the underscore character.

Labs are graded by the program you write. If you do not name it with the correct
syntax, you will not get credit for the lab.

Close the keyboard by hitting EXIT when finished.

Hit the EDIT softkey (not the physical key) to finish the creation of the new
program file. This will open the blank file that is your new program.

Notice the name of your program is at the top, and there’s one instruction in your
program, the [End]. End will always be at the end of your program, to tell the
controller it is finished.
Hit the POINT softkey to open a selection of default motion instructions. These
are our starting point for adding motion instructions.

*The default motion options can be edited to make programming points easier, but that
process is outside the scope of this lab.

Select the first option, which is a Joint move.

You may select it by touching it on screen, hitting the corresponding number on

the keypad, or scrolling up and down with the arrow keys and hitting enter on
your selection. It’s each user’s personal preference.

*We use a Joint motion type for the first point because the robot may be at any point in its
envelope. A joint move doesn’t have the requirement of moving in a straight line, so it can
easily and quickly reach the first point without encountering DCS errors.

By selecting that option, we have added a motion instruction to our program.

Notice the position number, P[1] was added to the program.

*Position numbers will be added in order as new ones are created. By default, that
position number contains our robot’s current coordinates.

The robot is not currently aligned with our first point, so we will need to
overwrite it by jogging the robot to that point and, while our motion instruction
is selected (all the way to the left, the line number), hold shift and hit the softkey
TOUCHUP.

*Only jog in X,Y, and Z in this lab, to prevent the tool from changing
orientation. If you do change the orientation of the robot, call your instructor
over to demonstrate how to reset it.

*Notice the @ symbol on our line. This means that the robot is currently “at” the
coordinates taught to that line. This is useful when stepping through our program later
on, to debug or fix bad points.

Now that we’ve taught that point where we want it, we can look at the rest of the
line. 5% speed is pretty low, the robot can move considerably faster than that,
even in our safe teaching mode.

Select the 5 in 5% and type in 50 on the number pad.

Every time a numerical value is entered, you will need to press the ENTER key
to confirm it, or the value won’t be changed in the program.
Once the speed is entered and confirmed, the termination type will be selected. If
you were to change it, you would hit the [CHOICE] softkey and select the new
type you want.

Since FINE is the correct choice for this program, we will leave it.

This motion instruction is now complete. If we were to add another instruction

now, it would overwrite the one we just placed. To add a second one, select the
bottom line of the program, [END]

Once again, hit the POINT softkey to bring up the default motion menu. This
time select one of the lines that begin with L, which is for linear moves.

Set your linear speeds to 212mm/s by selecting the speed variable and typing it
in.

*Remember to hit enter after typing it in.

Jog the robot to the second point on your lab sheet, make sure your second
motion instruction is selected (all the way to the left, the line number) and hit
TOUCHUP.

Set the termination types to FINE, if not already selected, by cursoring to the
termination type and hitting softkey CHOICE.

Repeat this process, adding a linear point for every dot on your lab sheet up until
you reach the beginning of the half circle.
You should have 5 total lines of motion instructions now. A joint move to the
first position, and 4 linear moves to the second through fifth position.

A circular instruction is a bit different than Joint and Linear.

Start by putting down another linear instruction with POINT, we will change it
to circular next.

Select the L in your 6th instruction line and press the softkey CHOICE.

There are 4 motion options available on our robots. Select the third option,
Circular.

Notice the circular instruction contains two separate points. The first point will
automatically be filled as the next position number, P[6].

*The two points are required for the robot’s processor to calculate how big the circle half
is and where it will end. To do this, we teach the midpoint and the endpoint. Circular
instructions can be used to create up to 180 degrees of a circle.

Jog the robot to the midpoint of the circle, select line 6 (all the way to the left)
and hit TOUCHUP

Select the line after line 6 that contains the next point, and jog the robot to the
end of the circle. Hit TOUCHUP. Set its speed to 212mm/s.
While we aren’t yet finished with our program, we may wish to test it out just to
make sure that circular instruction worked.

Scroll all the way up to line 1.

Hit the STEP key on the keypad so the Step indicator at the top left of the screen
turns YELLOW.

Make sure the robot’s bed is clear so the robot cannot reach you, other
students, or loose objects on the bed.

Adjust the speed of the robot with the speed keys on the keypad to 10%,
indicated by the number on the top right of the screen.

*We turn the speed down and step mode on for safety.

Hold SHIFT, clear all alarms with RESET, and press the FWD key.

The robot will complete one line of instruction each time you strike the FWD
key (while holding SHIFT), and the haptic feedback on the teach pendant will
vibrate once it reaches its destination. Pay careful attention to the robot’s path
and destination points as you go.

Keep stepping forward with FWD until you reach the end of the circle, to ensure
your program was correctly taught.

*Any points that weren’t taught correctly can be selected and taught again with
TOUCHUP after jogging the robot to the correct position.

After finishing stepping through, select [END] again and add another linear
POINT.

*The last destination point is back to where we started. This means it has already been
recorded as P[1], so we don’t have to teach another.

Select P[8] in that line and type 1 on the keypad. Press ENTER. Set its speed to
212mm/s.

Now the program ends where it began. Once again select line 1 and step through
the program with SHIFT + FWD.

Once you are sure your program is functioning correctly, hit STEP to allow the
program to run continuously. The Step indicator at the top will turn green. Select
line 1 and run it through again.

Once you are sure everything is good, adjust speed to 100% and run it again.

*Congratulations, you have made your first motion program!