It is possible to control the movement of a robot from theRoboDK API, for example, to program a robot from a Python program or a C# application.

The Run on robot option is managed automatically when a Python program is run from RoboDK. Follow these steps to run a Python program on the robot:

1.Right click aPython program

2.SelectRun on robot

The program should start running on the robot and the robot connection status will be updated accordingly.

Tip: Select the macroSampleOfflineProgramming.pyfrom the C:/RoboDK/Library/Macros/ folder to test it with a hexagonal path around the current location of the robot.

Robot Drivers - Image 7

If the program is executed outside the RoboDK’s GUI (for debugging purposes, or if we are using the RoboDK API for C# for example), we can set theRunModeusingRDK.setRunModeto RUNMODE_RUN_ROBOT. This will force the program to run on the robot. It is also possible to establish the connection usingrobot.Connect().

Note: RoboDK automatically sets the RunType to RUNMODE_SIMULATE by default the RoboDK API is started, unless a Python program is generated or set to Run on robot using the GUI.

The following code shows a brief example to establish a connection with the robot directly from the API:

# Start the RoboDK API

RDK=Robolink()

robot=RDK.Item('',ITEM_TYPE_ROBOT)

# Connect to the robot using default connetion parameters

success=robot.Connect()

status,status_msg=robot.ConnectedState()

ifstatus!=ROBOTCOM_READY:

# Stop if the connection did not succeed

raiseException("Failed to connect: "+status_msg)

# Set to run the robot commands on the robot

RDK.setRunMode(RUNMODE_RUN_ROBOT)

# Note: This is set automatically if we use

# robot.Connect() through the API

# Move the robot:

robot.MoveJ([10,20,30,40,50,60])

Tip: Select the macroSampleOnlineProgramming.pyfrom the C:/RoboDK/Library/Macros/ folder for a more complete example. Also, more examples of online programming using thePython APIand theC# APIare available in the RoboDK API section.

Note: It is also possible to trigger a program created using the GUI from the RoboDK API the same way it can be triggered manually using the GUI, as shown in theprevioussection. The following example shows how:

prog=RDK.Item(“MainProgram”,ITEM_TYPE_PROGRAM)

prog.setRunType(PROGRAM_RUN_ON_ROBOT)# Set the run on robot option

# Set to PROGRAM_RUN_ON_SIMULATOR to run on the simulator only

prog.RunProgram()

whileprog.Busy()==1:

pause(0.1)

print("Program done")

Using the API