Dr.

Stienecker's Site
Dr. Stienecker's Site

11: The KUKA Robot Programming Language

Download the Notes (https://adamwsonu.files.wordpress.com/2010/04/discussion-11-

notes.pdf)

TOPIC 1: Movement (AUDIO) (http://www2.onu.edu/~a-

stienecker.1/TECH332/TECH332-L20S3.mp3)

The KUKA robot can move from point A to point B in three main ways.

1. PTP – Point-to-Point – Motion along the quickest path to an end point. This motion
requires the programmer to “teach” one point.

2. LIN – Linear – Motion at a defined velocity and acceleration along a straight line. This
motion requires the programmer to “teach” one point. The robot uses the point defined in
the previous move as the start point and the point defined in the current command as the
end point and interpolates a straight line in between the two points.

3. CIRC – Circular – Motion at a defined velocity and accerlation along a circular path or a
portion of a circular path. This motion requires the programmer to “teach” two points, the
mid-point and the end point. Using the start point of the robot (defined as the end point in
the previous motion command) the robot interpolates a circular path through the mid-point
and to the end point.

TOPIC 2: Inputs and Outputs

Inputs and Outputs (I/O) are the same concept as in PLCs.

INPUTS – An input is something (digital or analog) coming from another system and is read
in and used to make decisions. Inputs cannot be changed by the robot is represent the state
of something external to the robot such as whether a sensor is on or off. In the robots our
inputs are defined from 33 through 40. These inputs can be set to any number but the
external inputs that are numbered 0 through 7 are reflected in the programming language as
33 through 40. Therefore to refer to physical input 0 in the program the syntax is $IN[33].
Physical input 4 would be $IN[37]. (AUDIO) (http://www2.onu.edu/~a-
stienecker.1/TECH332/TECH332-L20S4.mp3)
:
OUTPUTS – Outputs can be changed by the robot but can also be monitored. The
numbering is the same as the inputs. Physical output 0 is output 33 in the program. The
sytax is $OUT[33] for output 33. The syntax to change the state of the output is
$OUT[33]=TRUE to cause physical output 0 to turn on and $OUT[33]=FALSE to cause
physical output 0 to turn off. (AUDIO) (http://www2.onu.edu/~a-
stienecker.1/TECH332/TECH332-L20S5.mp3)

PULSED OUTPUTS – An output can be turned on for a short (or defined) period of time
easier than just turning the output on, waiting for a time, and then turning the output off.
An input cannot be pulsed because it cannot be altered by the robot. The syntax to
accomplish this is PULSE($OUT[33],TRUE,0.5) or more generically
PULSE($OUT[#],state,time) where state can be TRUE or FALSE and time is the time to pulse
the output in seconds. The above example would turn on physical output 0 for 0.5 seconds.
This time can range from 0.012 seconds to 2^31 seconds in increments of 0.1 seconds.
(AUDIO) (http://www2.onu.edu/~a-stienecker.1/TECH332/TECH332-L20S6.mp3)

TOPIC 3: Execution Control

The following are different ways to control the execution of your program.

1. If statements – An if statements checks a condition and executes code if the condition is

true and may execute code (if written) if the condition is false. The syntax is as follows.
(AUDIO) (http://www2.onu.edu/~a-stienecker.1/TECH332/TECH332-L20S8.mp3)

IF conditional == TRUE THEN

Whatever code you want to execute when the conditional is TRUE

ELSE

Whatever code you want to execute when the conditional is FALSE

ENDIF

For example, if you had a switch connected to physical input 0 the following code might be
used.

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IF $IN[33]==TRUE THEN

the code written here would execute when the switch was on.
:
ELSE

the code written here would execute when the switch was off.

ENDIF

The ELSE statement is optional and if not used should not be entered in. In other words if
in the example above nothing should happen if the switch was off the following code could
be used.

IF $IN[33]==TRUE THEN

the code written here would execute when the switch was on.

ENDIF

For those of you who are familiar with programming, there is no “ELSEIF” option.
However, you can nest the IF statements within each other.

2. Switch statements – A switch statement (in other languages it is called a case statement)
is commonly used when a variable can have many values instead of just on and off. For
example, if a variable had the name counter_variable and it could attain values of 10, 20, 30,
40, or 50 the following code could be used to execute different code base on the value of the
variable. (AUDIO) (http://www2.onu.edu/~a-stienecker.1/TECH332/TECH332-
L20S9.mp3)

SWITCH counter_variable

CASE 10

code that should execute when counter_variable equals 10.

CASE 20

code that should execute when counter_variable equals 20.

CASE 30

code that should execute when counter_variable equals 30.

DEFAULT

code that should execute when counter_variable doesn’t equal any of the above cases.

ENDSWITCH

3. For loops – The For loop is a command that allows the programmer to execute a piece of
code a certain number of times while incrementing through a variable. For example if a
programmer wanted to execute a set of code 50 times while incrementing a variable in steps
:
of 2 the following code could be used. (AUDIO) (http://www2.onu.edu/~a-
stienecker.1/TECH332/TECH332-L20S10.mp3)

FOR Counter_Variable = 1 to 100 STEP 2

code to execute every time through the loop

ENDFOR

The STEP is optional and without the command it defaults to 1.

4. While loops – Instead of executing a set of code a set number of times, a While loop can
be used to execute a piece of code while a condition remains true or false. For example if a
robot should move back and forth while an input remains on the following code could be
used. (AUDIO) (http://www2.onu.edu/~a-stienecker.1/TECH332/TECH332-
L20S11.mp3)

WHILE $IN[35]==TRUE

code to execute while the input remains on

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ENDWHILE

5. Repeats loops – A While loop does something while a condition remains true or false, but
a repeat loop does something until a conditions becomes true or false. For example, a robot
could be asked to move back and forth until a condition is met. (AUDIO)
(http://www2.onu.edu/~a-stienecker.1/TECH332/TECH332-L20S12.mp3)

REPEAT

code to be executed until input 40 turns off.

UNTIL $IN[40]==FALSE

6. Endless loops – Many times, it is the desire of the programmer that the robot does the
same task over and over again endlessly. In order to accomplish that we use the LOOP
command. This causes code between LOOP and ENDLOOP to execute without end.

LOOP

code to execute endlessly

ENDLOOP
:
TOPIC 4: Variables

In a basic program (MODUL PROGRAM) there is a INI line pre-written in a new program.
Above this INI line is the area in which variables are declared or given name and definition.
The following are allowable variable types. (AUDIO) (http://www2.onu.edu/~a-
stienecker.1/TECH332/TECH332-L20S14.mp3)

1. Integer (numbers without a decimal point such as 1, 233, 143, 4365) – Syntax: INT
variable_name
2. Real (numbers with a decimal point such as 1.2, 33.45, 3.14) – Syntax: REAL variable_name
3. E6POS (variable representing a point in space and robot orientation) – Syntax: E6POS
variable_name

The E6POS variable consists of 6 variables representing the point in cartesian space and the
orientation of the arm at that point. Because of this the programmer can reference an E6POS
variable in several ways.

» variable_name.x would refer to the x value of the point in space

» variable_name.y would refer to the y value of the point in space
» variable_name.z would refer to the z value of the point in space
» variable_name.a would refer to the rotation around the z axis in space
» variable_name.b would refer to the rotation around the y axis in space
» variable_name.c would refer to the rotation around the x axis in space

Oftentimes a programmer will want to save the current position of the robot to an E6POS
variable. This is done with the $POS_ACT command as follows.

If point_in_space is the variable name the programmer would type… point_in_space =

$POS_ACT and the current position of the robot would be saved to the variable in real time.

Additionally, when using variables, many operators are required and can be grouped into
three categories. (AUDIO) (http://www2.onu.edu/~a-stienecker.1/TECH332/TECH332-
L20S15.mp3)

1. Relational Operators

» Check to see if equal to: ==

» Check to see if not equal to: <>
» Check to see if less than: <
» Check to see if less than or equal to: <=
» Check to see if greater than: >
» Check to see if greater than or equal to: >=

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2. Logic Operators

» NOT
» AND
» OR
» EXOR (exclusive or)

3. Arithmetic Operators

» Multiplication *
» Additiona +
» Subraction –
» Division /

TOPIC 5: Other Topics (include wait and waitfor here)

Timers – Timers are also available to the programmer for uses such as timing the amount of
time that occurs between two inputs coming on. There are 16 timers (1-16) and there are
three commands available for each timer. Shown here are the commands for timer 1. If any
other timer is used just replace the 1 with the timer number. (AUDIO)
(http://www2.onu.edu/~a-stienecker.1/TECH332/TECH332-L20S17.mp3)

» $TIMER_STOP[1]=FALSE This command starts the timer timing. Just like the button
on your stopwatch that starts timing.
» $TIMER_STOP[1]=TRUE This command stops the timer timing. Just like the button on
your stopwatch that stops timing.
» $TIMER[1] This is the place where the time is stored in milliseconds. A programmer
can set this value to zero by typing $TIMER[1]=0 or use conditional statements based on
the value. The value can also be used in a mathematical equation such as Distance =
Rate * Time to determine either distance or rate whichever is not known. We will use
this in the lab to determine the speed of the conveyor belt by solving for Rate = Distance
/ Time using two sensors placed along the conveyor a known distance apart.

Velocity Command – The linear velocity of the robot can be set by using the $VEL.CP
variable. We will also use this in the lab to set the robot to move at the same speed as the
conveyor. An example would be if we wanted the robot to move at 0.5m/s we would type
$VEL.CP=0.5. Note that this variable is always in units of m/s.

Wait Commands – There are three different commands that the programmer can use to
cause the program to freeze. (AUDIO) (http://www2.onu.edu/~a-
stienecker.1/TECH332/TECH332-L20S13.mp3)

» WAIT FOR – This command causes the program to stop until a condition is met. An
example would be WAIT FOR $IN[35]. This would cause the program to stop until
$IN[35] was true.
:
 » WAIT SEC – This command causes the program to stop for a certain amount of time. An
example would be WAIT SEC 3.2. This would cause the program to freeze for 3.2
seconds.
» HALT – The HALT command causes the robot program to stop until restarted by an
operator.

You should now be prepared to begin the assessment game (http://www2.onu.edu/~a-

stienecker.1/TECH332/KRL Game.swf). BE SURE TO HAVE YOUR CAPS LOCK ON AS IT
WILL MARK LOWERCASE ANSWERS INCORRECT. If you hit a score of 1200 you are
guaranteed an 80%, after that you are competing with your peers. The highest score gets
100%. To determine other grades (if your score is greater than 1200) I will take 80+ (your
score-1200) x (20/((the highest score) – 1200)). If your score is less than 1200 your grade will
be (80/1200)x(your score).

To submit, take a screen capture of your results and email it to me in a word document.

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4 Responses to “11: The KUKA Robot

Programming Language”

dewani Says:
July 24, 2010 at 3:17 pm | Reply
This guided me to complete my work with ease

adamwsonu Says:
July 24, 2010 at 4:00 pm | Reply
Glad the material helped. Please share the application for which you used it.

Pranjal Shukla Says:

:
 October 30, 2019 at 7:37 am | Reply
I am using a KUKA robot with a Fronius power source for research on welding. I want to
record arc images and want the arc to be ON for a give period of time without the robot
changing it’s position (Table moves for providing the weld speed). I am not able to figure
out how to achieve that. Can you help?

AdamWS Says:
October 30, 2019 at 7:43 am | Reply
It all depends on the age of your robot and several other factors. However, what you
will need to do is coordinate the I/O and the motion. When you simply have a series
of PTP commands with I/O commands interspaced the robot will anticipate the next
few steps of code before it completes the previous sections. There is a way to force it
to not anticipate the next few commands and you will need to use that. It should be a
check box or otherwise an option on the move command (PTP, LIN, CIRC, etc). Once
you command the move that completes at the point you wish to have the arc begin
you will use the robot to command on the arc via the I/O then pause for your
duration. After you are finished with the arc command the I/O off and finish by
commanding a move to home or elsewhere but again use that option to prevent
anticipation. Hope this helps.

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