MIME 4450 Lec 2 9 3 26
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Overview
Ted Evans outlines the MIME 4450 robotics course, assigns a half-page review of Control.com’s industrial robotics material, and maps out resources for learning FANUC robots, Siemens and Allen-Bradley PLC integration, vision, and collaborative robotics. He emphasizes hands-on programming and connecting at least three automation components, including robots, PLCs, vision, and SQL databases, while explaining lab safety, shared-robot workflow, and the importance of production traceability.
Key takeaways
- The Control.com robot review is due on paper next Tuesday, and its industrial-robotics material may appear on later open-note quizzes where computers are not permitted.
- Robot Whispering and FANUC handling-school materials provide practical starting points for teach-pendant programming, while RoboGuide tutorials offer additional examples even though the lab uses physical robots.
- FANUC robots use EtherNet/IP in the described lab setup; Siemens PLCs therefore need compatible communications support or a protocol converter to exchange data.
- When multiple teams share a robot, group-prefixed filenames and clearly managed frames can reduce the risk of overwriting programs or disrupting another team’s setup.
- A FANUC CRX collaborative robot uses force feedback to stop on contact, enabling closer human interaction while sacrificing some speed and torque compared with standard industrial robots.
- Automation projects should connect production control to traceable records: SQL data can identify manufactured parts, support recalls, and meet long-term regulatory reporting requirements.
Chapters
- Ted Evans assigns a half-page review of something new learned from Control.com’s approximately 70-page Fundamentals of Industrial Robots resource.
- The review is due on paper in class next Tuesday; Evans requests printed submissions rather than email.
- Future open-note quizzes may include straightforward questions about the robotics reading, so students should take notes because computers will not be allowed.
- The course site contains three robot-material downloads with overlapping resources, including multiple copies of some documents.
- Evans plans to introduce FANUC programming materials and apply them in the lab, where students will have swipe access to North Engineering 1100.
- The lab’s severe heating problem must be resolved before robot work can proceed comfortably; additional robots are expected in rooms 1100 and 2350.
- Robot Whispering is a roughly 70-page guide that Evans recommends for getting started with FANUC robots.
- The guide explains teach-pendant operation and includes many example programs that students can study and adapt.
- Several versions of the guide appear in the course materials, including a PDF and a Word document.
- FANUC-related tutorial resources include videos by Adam Malia and Steve Stober, covering topics such as FANUC vision.
- Some tutorials use RoboGuide, FANUC’s computer-based robot simulation software, even though the course primarily uses physical teach pendants.
- FANUC robots in the lab use EtherNet/IP, associated here with Allen-Bradley; Siemens PLCs need suitable communications support to exchange data with them.
- Evans shares a FANUC handling-school course and its preparatory materials, including a roughly 170-page main reference and a 338-page preparation document.
- The handling course was taught using RoboGuide, while students will work with teach pendants attached to the physical robots.
- The training documents contain procedures, examples, and end-of-section quizzes that can help answer programming questions.
- Frames define reference coordinates for the robot, its tool, or a pick-and-place location, and frame selection is a broadly applicable robotics concept.
- When several groups share a FANUC robot, Evans proposes labeling files by group, such as A, B, and C, to prevent teams from overwriting one another’s work.
- Students should aim to program at least one FANUC application; Evans identifies the handling-school book, ChatGPT, and FANUC support as resources when they get stuck.
- Students must not open the robot’s lower electrical cabinet without Evans’s permission because it contains 110-volt equipment.
- Ethernet cables should use the correct controller port; Evans will identify or install the appropriate connection rather than having students open the cabinet.
- Robots with potentially dangerous force are enclosed by glass with a door interlock that stops operation when the door opens; students must not climb over the barrier.
- KAREL is FANUC’s higher-level procedural programming language, intended for more sophisticated applications than teach-pendant programming; the course does not have its reference manual.
- Robot motion coordinates six servo axes, with updates and corrections described as occurring at intervals below one millisecond to produce coordinated movement.
- Three of the four yellow FANUC robots have vision, and Evans has both preparatory and full-course materials for FANUC vision training.
- Evans provides roughly 75 to 100 pages of study cards for the NOCTI robotics certification test, which he says he passed.
- The white FANUC CRX is a collaborative robot with a tablet-style interface and force feedback that can stop the robot when it encounters resistance.
- Compared with standard yellow industrial robots, cobots can work closer to people without the same fencing, but trade speed and torque for safer collaboration.
- North Engineering 1100 has two Festo workstations; the older unit in the back has five PLCs arranged as a simplified manufacturing line.
- The older Festo system can support a project in which students program stations and pass work sequentially between controllers.
- Evans cautions against choosing the newer, approximately $150,000 display-oriented system, arguing that programming robots, PLCs, and vision provides more useful practice.
- PROFINET is associated with Siemens, while EtherNet/IP is associated with Allen-Bradley and is the communication protocol used by the FANUC robots discussed.
- Hilscher devices can translate between industrial protocols when controllers cannot communicate directly.
- A Siemens PLC option can now provide the needed protocol conversion internally, so the approximately $1,000 Hilscher units purchased for the lab may not be necessary.
- Evans proposes projects that connect at least three elements, such as a robot, a PLC, and a vision system.
- Possible equipment combinations include Siemens or CODESYS PLCs, FANUC or Universal Robots, and Cognex or Hiwonder vision.
- SQL databases can serve as a fourth component for recording what a production line made and how each item should be identified or handled.
- Manufacturers can send customer records with parts so recipients can identify variants such as green, red, yellow, or black components.
- Evans describes the Dundee cement plant’s requirement to retain emissions records indefinitely and produce a report for a specified 30-minute period within 30 minutes.
- Database-backed production records support regulatory compliance and product recalls, including tracing where a contaminated food batch was produced or distributed.
- Students are not expected to become SQL experts, but should understand that automation work is incomplete until important production data can be accessed and reported.
Transcript excerpt
0:05 Okay. Uh, can everybody hear me? Okay. So, uh, I just forgot my mouse. I'm using the pad for today, so I forgot about it. Anyway, uh, so if you are inclined, you should probably have checked that I did or didn't say what I was going to do. And it took me a while, but I got the first video uh posted and um there it is. So if you want to go back and listen to it, you can. Uh you may not want to, but on the other hand, there it is. Okay. So, uh I wanted to >> to go through today uh the um >> um if if if anybody did not get a a syllabus, uh I have some syllabi left if
0:56 anybody needs one. Um >> let's get started. >> Anybody need a syllabus? >> My name is uh Ted Evans EVs. Um it's William Theodore, but I name so if you get confused, >> we don't want that going. Nothing on there right now. >> Um, >> but that's me. That was me going on that last one and we're going to get out of that really quick. Okay. All right. Anybody need a syllabus? Syllabus. >> Anybody else? Okay. Anybody else?
2:03 Did it work the other day? Well, it's off. Reason I have no clue. There's no There's no button for me to push. Anybody know how to fix that? Anybody work for the IT group or no? Huh? This is North8
3:16 and the vector on the north side. So somebody fix whatever. So I I wanted to go through uh with you about the the the material that I have that is out there and I wanted to go through with you um the uh assignment for this week which is
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Summary, takeaways, and chapters were generated by AI from the video's transcript and may contain errors. The video belongs to its creator, Wm_T Evans.