Robot / Keyence communication

Robot Controller
1

Hi, I am about to purchase our first Keyence sensor to survey parts before they are processed.I am not sure the best way to connect them to an ABB robot.

This sensor will almost be a demonstration piece used to justify purchasing more. It will need to be moved from robot to robot easily to show a range of applications it could be used for. These range from S4, S4c+ to brand new IRC5 controllers.

  1. The most compatible method I can see would be to connect it to an analogue input or group input, but this means re-wiring connections each time i move the sensor which will be a real pain.

  2. I am leaning towards RS232 as I have built something like this before, but for a PC instead of a robot. As far as I can tell all our robots have a com port I can use.

  3. Is it possible to use the ethernet port to connect to an external sensor like this?
    Any ideas or shared experience would be a real help.

Thanks

Liam

2

Hi Liam

If you provided the model number of the sensor it would help in understanding the communication methods that are available on it. That is what really dictates what the robot can do.

I have worked with RS232 over the robot com port with a keyance laser measurement sensor and we could send it commands and read from it.

Regards

Richard