Most companies are content with writing programs on robot controllers and letting the robots repeat those programs. However, our robots get bored quickly, so we always want to give them new paths from an external computer.

To give the robots paths, we need to use a Kuka package called RSI (Robot Sensor Interface). RSI lets us control the robots from an external PC via sensor-guided motion. Currently, we run the robots in cartesian coordinates, giving them XYZ points in space to hit. Now, though, we're getting cocky, and think it's time to send them joint commands instead.

This is what you've (probably never) trained for. I have a program on my computer that can tell the robots what joints to move, but I haven't written any program to run on the robot controller, connect to the PC, and move the robots. I want you to write this program. A copy of it will live on each robot and talk to the computer.

The PC will send you this stuff:

• Joint Positions A1 - A6, E1 # (relative, deg & mm)

The PC needs to know this stuff:

• Joint Positions A1 - A6, E1 # encoder values (absolute, deg & mm)

• Joint Currents A1 - A6, E1 # controller currents (amps)

Thankfully, I've dredged up some documentation that should help you out. I squirreled it away as a bunch of PDFs in the docs/ folder.

• KUKA_System_Software_5_6_en.pdf: Don't know Kuka Robot Language? Me neither. Good thing we have a manual telling us how to write it. A word of caution: the manual has a ton of contents, and only a bit of it is relevant.

• Robot_Sensor_Interface_2_3_en.pdf: The meat and potatoes, so to speak. This manual even has example code!

• KUKA_Ethernet_RSI_XML_1_2_en.pdf: In KRC2, the base RSI library doesn't include Ethernet capability. Luckily for you, EthernetRSIXML does.

Some of these documents have source code that comes with them. Don't get too excited, none of it solves your problem. Still, it might be useful. I put some select parts of it in the examples/ folder.

In order to submit the assignment, do the following:

1. Navigate to GitHub's project import page: https://github.com/new/import

2. In the box titled "Your old repository's clone URL", paste the homework repository's link: https://github.com/Machina-Labs/path_analysis_hw

3. In the box titled "Repository Name", add a name for your local homework (ex. path_analysis_soln)

4. Set privacy level to "Public", then click "Begin Import" button at bottom of the page.

5. Develop your homework solution in the cloned repository and push it to Github when you're done. Extra points for good Git hygiene.

6. Send us the link to your repository.

If you thought this was a piece of cake, let's see you do some more cool stuff.

We should probably be able to stop the robot from the controller. Modify your program and your .xml configuration file to add this capability.

Right now, once the KRL program starts, it never ends... Modify your program and your .xml file to let the PC terminate RSI controlled motion and send the robot back to home or something.