Conditions for Using Electric Gripper and Force Sensor Together

If an electric gripper and the Compliance function with force sensor (hereafter, "force sensor") are used together, install the following devices in the robot controllers.

Electric gripper control device

Electric gripper control board

Communication device for a force sensor

RS-422A communication board or RS-422A micro converter

The following describes the conditions for each device used for force sensor communication.

• Conditions for the Use of RS-422A Communication Board
• Conditions for the Use of RS-422A Micro Converter

Conditions for the Use of RS-422A Communication Board

Both of the electric gripper control board and RS-422A communication board are PCI boards, therefore, it is impossible to install both of them in one robot controller.
For the communication between robot controllers which use both Ethernet and EtherCAT, an EtherCAT master board (PCI board) is installed in the master controller.
Therefore, neither the electric gripper control board nor the RS-422A communication board can be installed in the master controller. From that reason, install the electric gripper control board (2CH) and RS-422A communication board (4CH) into different slave slave controller.
The following shows the wiring diagram for the application that four robots are linked for cooperation and each of them equips an electric gripper and a force sensor.

Because of the construction of each board, the maximum count of available electric grippers or force sensors differs depending on the number of robots for cooperation.

If an RS-422A micro converter is used for the communication with a force sensor, the maximum total number of electric grippers and force sensors is the number of robots used for cooperation.

The Electric gripper control board and/or RS-422A communication board installed in the slave controller can be controlled from the master controller. For control method of each board, refer to the following links.

• How to Use an Electric Gripper in Cooperative Control Function
• How to Use Force Sensor in Cooperative Control Function

Conditions for the Use of RS-422A Micro Converter

Do not connect two RS-422A micro converters to one robot controller and use one of them for communication with a force sensor installed in another robot.

Make sure that one robot controller connects one RS-422A micro converter only.

The use of an RS-422A micro converter requires the configuration after the connection. Please to "How to Use Force Sensor in Cooperative Control Function".

For conditions about an electric gripper, please refer to "Precautions on Using an Electric Gripper".