Controller Usage

Currently supported FANUC-specific controllers include:

scaled_joint_trajectory_controller: a variation of the standard joint_trajectory_controller, which allows the speed to be scaled up or down between 0% and 100%.
fanuc_gpio_controller: provides the ability to access controller data such as I/O, numeric registers, and robot status.

fanuc_controllers/scaled_joint_trajectory_controller

This controller is a variation of the standard joint_trajectory_controller, which allows the speed to be scaled up or down between 0% and 100%.

Speed scaling

Speed scaling is a float value ranging from 0 to 100, representing the percentage of robot execution speed following the trajectory.
The scaled_joint_trajectory_controller subscribes to this speed scaling value and generates commands that automatically scale the speed up or down between 0% (robot stops) and 100% (robot runs at full execution speed).
At first release, the /speed_scaling_factor topic is provided to allow adjustment of the robot speed.

fanuc_controllers/fanuc_gpio_controller

This controller provides the ability to access controller data such as I/O, numeric registers, and robot status.

Published topics

~/io_cmd [fanuc_msgs/msg/IOCmd]: Synchronized bool I/O commands (e.g. DO, RO, F)
~/io_state [fanuc_msgs/msg/IOState]: Synchronized bool I/O states (e.g. DO, DI, RO, RI, F)
~/analog_io_cmd [fanuc_msgs/msg/AnalogIOCmd]: Synchronized analog I/O commands (e.g. AO)
~/analog_io_state [fanuc_msgs/msg/AnalogIOState]: Synchronized analog I/O states (e.g. AO, AI)
~/num_reg_cmd [fanuc_msgs/msg/NumRegCmd]: Synchronized numeric register commands
~/num_reg_state [fanuc_msgs/msg/NumRegState]: Synchronized numeric register states
~/connection_status [fanuc_msgs/msg/ConnectionStatus]: Publishes whether the robot is connected or not. If this is false, no commands can be sent to the robot.
~/robot_status [fanuc_msgs/msg/RabotStatus]: Synchronized robot status (e.g. in_error, tp_enabled, e_stopped, motion_possible, contact_stop_mode). The contact_stop_mode publishes an integer with the following definitions (0: NONE (The robot is not in collaborative mode, or the safety sensor is disabled), 1: SAFE, 2: STOP, 3: DSBL, 4: ESCP).
~/robot_status_ext [fanuc_msgs/msg/RobotStatusExt]: Asynchronized robot status (e.g. error_code, in_motion, drives_powered, gen_override, speed_clamp_limit)
~/collaborative_speed_scaling [fanuc_msgs/msg/CollaborativeSpeedScaling]: Publishes the robots current collaborative speed scaling, between 0 to 1. Use this as a reference for the scaled_joint_trajectory_controller to avoid the robot violating the collaborative speed limit. This is only available for collaborative robots in collaborative mode.

Advertised services

~/get_bool_io [fanuc_msgs/srv/GetBoolIO]: Get asynchronized bool I/O (e.g. DO, DI, RO, RI, F)
~/get_analog_io [fanuc_msgs/srv/GetAnalogIO]: Get asynchronized analog I/O (e.g. AO, AI)
~/get_group_io [fanuc_msgs/srv/GetGroupIO]: Get asynchronized group I/O (e.g. GO, GI)
~/get_num_reg [fanuc_msgs/srv/GetNumReg]: Get asynchronized numeric register
~/set_bool_io [fanuc_msgs/srv/SetBoolIO]: Set asynchronized bool I/O (e.g. DO, RO, F)
~/set_analog_io [fanuc_msgs/srv/SetAnalogIO]: Set asynchronized analog I/O (e.g. AO)
~/set_group_io [fanuc_msgs/srv/SetGroupIO]: Set asynchronized group I/O (e.g. GO)
~/set_num_reg [fanuc_msgs/srv/SetNumReg]: Set asynchronized numeric register
~/set_gen_override [fanuc_msgs/srv/SetGenOverride]: Set robot GenOverride. This value needs to stay at 100 when the hardware interface is in active state.
~/set_payload_id [fanuc_msgs/srv/SetPayloadID]: Sets the robot payload schedule number.

Configuring high-frequency I/O

Selected GPIO Topics support high-frequency update. The update rate is up to the robot controller sampling rate. The selection of high-frequency updated I/O is configured through a YAML configuration file before the driver starts. This section describes behaviors and limitations of the YAML file, and provides an outline of the YAML file format.

Behaviors

The GPIO Controller’s YAML configuration file behaves as follows:

The GPIO YAML configuration file is passed directly into the Hardware Interface during the launch process. An example of the GPIO configuration file is provided in the driver project (fanuc_driver/fanuc_hardware_interface/config/example_gpio_config.yaml).
The Hardware Interface will validate the YAML file early during initialization and provide an indication of any errors.
The configuration file defines the memory map for each topic type.
Invalid configurations will cause a Hardware Interface initialization failure and an error will be reported in the logfile.
If a topic is not configured (e.g., no Analog I/O is needed in the application), the topic will remain empty.

Limitations

The number of data points to be accessed is limited in the high-frequency update cycle. Therefore, some limitations are necessary. A GPIO Process Time Factor (PTF) will be used to limit the amount of I/O accessed in the communication cycle. The user can configure the YAML according to PTF considerations.

The GPIO PTF specification is as follows:

Configuration is set once based on the YAML file at driver launch.
The limit of the PTF is 32 when the sample rate is 1ms. The limit of PTF is (32 * (sample rate (ms))).
PTF is the total of all YAML configurations (io_cmd, io_state, num_reg_cmd, num_reg_state, etc.).
When unassigned I/O is specified in the YAML file, an error occurs at connection.
Default (worst) PTF is the same value as the “length” for a YAML configuration line.

PTF optimization best practices

Note

For Digital I/O: (PTF will be INT((“length” + 31)/32))

A configuration is in a same rack, slot, and contiguous I/O assignment

Additional conditions for digital output:

The length of a yaml configuration is a multiple of 32
([yaml’s start index] – [I/O config’s start index of RANGE] + [I/O config’s START] - 1) is multiple of 32

Digital I/O Example:

Robot I/O Assignment:
  #         RANGE       RACK  SLOT START
  1   DO [    1-   10]     0    0     0
  1   DO [   11-  100]    34    1     1

YAML:
  { type: DO, start: 11, length: 64} --> 2 PTF
  { type: DO, start: 21, length: 57} --> 57 PTF

For Analog I/O:

The best practice: (PTF will be INT((“length” + 1)/2))
- A configuration is in a same rack, slot, and contiguous I/O assignment
Additional condition for analog output:
- The length of a configuration is multiple of 2
- ([yaml’s start index] – [I/O config’s index] + [I/O config’s CHANNEL] - 1) is multiple of 2

For Numeric Registers, PTF is the same value as the YAML “length”.

Other limitations:

GI/GO are not supported.
I/O simulation is not supported. Real I/O value is always accessed.

YAML File Outline

An outline of the YAML file is as follows:

gpio_topic_config:
  io_state: [
    { type: < I/O type >, start: < start pt. >, length: < number of consec. pts. > },
    { < array element N > }
  ]

  io_cmd: [
    { type: < I/O type >, start: < start pt. >, length: < number of consec. pts. > },
    { < array element N > }
  ]

  analog_io_cmd: [
    { type: < I/O type >, start: < start pt. >, length: < number of consec. pts. > },
    { < array element N > }
  ]

  analog_io_state: [
    { type: < I/O type >, start: < start pt. >, length: < number of consec. pts. > },
    { < array element N > }
  ]

  num_reg_cmd: [
    { start: < start pt. >, length: < number of consec. pts. > },
    { < array element N > }
  ]

  num_reg_state: [
    { start: < start pt. >, length: < number of consec. pts. > },
    { < array element N > }
  ]

Example YAML File

gpio_topic_config:
  io_state:
    - type: DI
      start: 11
      length: 1
    - type: DO
      start: 11
      length: 1
    - type: RI
      start: 1
      length: 2
    - type: RO
      start: 1
      length: 2
    - type: F
      start: 1
      length: 32
  io_cmd:
    - type: DO
      start: 11
      length: 1
    - type: RO
      start: 1
      length: 1
    - type: F
      start: 1
      length: 32
  num_reg_state:
    - start: 1
      length: 3
  num_reg_cmd:
    - start: 3
      length: 1