moto

A Python library for controlling Yaskawa MOTOMAN robots with the MotoROS option.

Installation

pip3 install git+https://github.com/tingelst/moto.git --upgrade

On the robot side, the moto library employs the ROS-Industrial robot driver found here: https://github.com/ros-industrial/motoman. Follow the official tutorial for installing the necessary files on the robot controller.

Example

The highest level API is defined in the Moto class.

from moto import Moto

Connect to the robot controller with the defined ip address <robot_ip> and define the R1 control group with six degrees of freedom.

m = Moto(
    "<robot_ip>",
    [
        ControlGroupDefinition(
            groupid="R1",
            groupno=0,
            num_joints=6,
            joint_names=[
                "joint_1_s",
                "joint_2_l",
                "joint_3_u",
                "joint_4_r",
                "joint_5_b",
                "joint_6_t",
            ],
        ),
    ],
)

If your robot system has multiple control groups, e.g. a positioner with two degrees of freedom, these can be defined as follows:

m = Moto(
    "<robot_ip>",
    [
        ControlGroupDefinition(
            groupid="R1",
            groupno=0,
            num_joints=6,
            joint_names=[
                "joint_1_s",
                "joint_2_l",
                "joint_3_u",
                "joint_4_r",
                "joint_5_b",
                "joint_6_t",
            ],
        ),
        ControlGroupDefinition(
            groupid="S1",
            groupno=1,
            num_joints=2,
            joint_names=[
                "joint_1",
                "joint_2",
            ],
        ),
    ],
)

The system supports up to 4 control groups.

Each control group can be accessed and introspected by name:

r1 = m.control_groups["R1"]
print(r1.position)

Motion

To be able to send trajectores, you must first start the trajectory mode:

m.motion.start_trajectory_mode()

The API for sending trajectories is still under development. For now, to move joint 1 you can e.g. do:

robot_joint_feedback = m.state.joint_feedback_ex()

p0 = JointTrajPtFullEx(
    number_of_valid_groups=2,
    sequence=0,
    joint_traj_pt_data=[
        JointTrajPtExData(
            groupno=0,
            valid_fields=ValidFields.TIME | ValidFields.POSITION | ValidFields.VELOCITY,
            time=0.0,
            pos=robot_joint_feedback.joint_feedback_data[0].pos,
            vel=[0.0] * 10,
            acc=[0.0] * 10,
        ),
        JointTrajPtExData(
            groupno=1,
            valid_fields=ValidFields.TIME | ValidFields.POSITION | ValidFields.VELOCITY,
            time=0.0,
            pos=robot_joint_feedback.joint_feedback_data[1].pos,
            vel=[0.0] * 10,
            acc=[0.0] * 10,
        ),
    ],
)

p1 = JointTrajPtFullEx(
    number_of_valid_groups=2,
    sequence=1,
    joint_traj_pt_data=[
        JointTrajPtExData(
            groupno=0,
            valid_fields=ValidFields.TIME | ValidFields.POSITION | ValidFields.VELOCITY,
            time=5.0,
            pos=np.deg2rad([10.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0]),
            vel=[0.0] * 10,
            acc=[0.0] * 10,
        ),
        JointTrajPtExData(
            groupno=1,
            valid_fields=ValidFields.TIME | ValidFields.POSITION | ValidFields.VELOCITY,
            time=5.0,
            pos=np.deg2rad([10.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0]),
            vel=[0.0] * 10,
            acc=[0.0] * 10,
        ),
    ],
)

m.motion.send_joint_trajectory_point(p0) # Current position at time t=0.0
m.motion.send_joint_trajectory_point(p1) # Desired position at time t=5.0

IO

You can read and write bits:

m.io.read_bit(27010)
m.io.write_bit(27010, 0)

as well as bytes:

m.io.read_group(1001)
m.io.write_group(1001, 42)

As per the documentation, only the following addresses can be written to:

• 27010 and up : Network Inputs (25010 and up on DX100 and FS100)
• 10010 and up : Universal/General Outputs

ROS2 and Real-time control

An extension of the current robot side driver with support for real-time control, and an accompanying ROS2 Control hardware interface is under development here and here, respectively.

Troubleshooting

This is based on experiences with the YRC1000 controller, but should be similar for other controllers as well.

When connection I get [Errno 113] No route to host

The IP is not correct.
You can find the IP of the controller in the pendant by performing these steps:

1. Go into management mode
   • System info > Security > Change to 'MANAGEMENT MODE'
   • Default password on the YRC1000 controller is all 9's (sixteen nines)
2. Go into network services
   • System info > Network Services
   • Look up the correct IP for the LAN port you are connected to.
   • In our case, we use LAN2 which has a default IP of 192.168.255.200

When connecting, nothing happens or [Errno 101] Network is unreachable

Your computer is most likely not on the same subnetwork as the robot, and the connection times out.

You have to manually set the IP and subnetmask of your computer to be the within the same subnet as the robot controller. You can find the IP of the robot controller by following the instructions above: link.

Example: If the robot has the IP 192.168.255.200 with a subnet of 255.255.255.0, then a valid IP of the computer would be an IP in the range 192.168.255.1-255 (except for 200). And the subnetmask should be set to 255.255.255.0

The robot doesn't move when I call send_joint_trajectory_point()

• Is the pendant set to remote mode?
• Are all emergency stop buttons reset?
• Is the door to the robot cell closed and reset?

A recommendation is to assert that robot_status().mode == PendantMode.AUTO before trying to send any trajectories.

Acknowledgements

This work is supported by the Norwegian Research Council infrastructure project MANULAB: Norwegian Manufacturing Research Laboratory under grant 269898.