Robot Control RCE + K6

Concept of RCE control system

The control system is a fully digital controlled system. This means there are only digital signal processors (DSP) involved in the entire control system and not any analogue electronic component. All the components of the control system (such as control cabinet, welding power source, each axis and the teach pendant) are linked by a digital bus system. 

A full digital robot control system brings the following advantages:

  • No influence by any environmental disturbance like inductive fields of welding cables
  • Quickest response time by fastest bus connection > smooth motion of robot
  • Absolute reproducibility of welding result > highest consistency in welding quality
  • Easy diagnosis possibilities of the entire robot control system > less skills and no special instruments for diagnosis are necessary

By using modular drive technology and standard PC components a high reliability is guaranteed and the ability to remain constantly at the cutting edge of technology.

Due to the used standard PC components, diagnosis and exchange of components are easy possible also by the customer's engineers.

The complete control system for up to 8 robot axes and all external NC axes is included in a compact control cabinet connected to the robot, the teach pendant, the operating cassette, the external axes, and the power source by cables, pluggable on both sides.

igm Teach Pendant K6

As a key element of the RCE control system, the unique teach pendant K6 assembles all the control functions of the RCE control system. No additional keyboard is necessary.

The industrial design award winning lightweight teach pendant is made out of a high resistant plastic mould and a keyboard panel at topside with an embedded LCD touch screen. The sensible buttons are palpable to enable the operator to touch and feel each button even with working gloves on, compared to a touch screen display. The revolutionary and widely favoured shape of the teach pendant allows a right hand and left operation as well as many other holding positions.

A clear and simple display of each axis button allows the operator a distinctive movement of each axis without pushing the wrong axis button my mistake. A courser block offers easy navigation in the RCE software menus and replaces any necessary mouse.

The control PC uses Windows 10 embedded and Linux embedded. The transfer of process data relevant to security takes place with Saftey over EtherCAT (FSoE).

Characteristics of the K6 teach pendant

  • Teach pendant with 8.4“ touch screen
  • integrated USB connection
  • up to 32 interpolated axes and 4 global axes
  • Windows 10 embedded and Linux embedded
  • Engine & DSL (Encoder) connection with a single cable
  • All servos within one control cabinet
  • Ethernet (K6) and EtherCAT (drive & periphery)
  • iRIO igm Robot In-/Output board via EtherCAT
  • Safety over EtherCAT (FSoE)