Robot positions are recorded as Targets. A Cartesian target defines the position of the tool with respect to a coordinate system. A Joint target defines the position of the robot given robot joint values.

Note: RoboDK creates Cartesian targets by default (red targets). You can right click a target and set it as a Joint target to convert it to a Joint target (green targets).

Follow these steps to create two targets as a new home target and approach target respectively:

1.Double click the robot to show the robot panel.

2.Select Paint gun as the Tool Frame. Once a tool or a reference frame becomes active it will show a green dot in the tree icon.

3.Select Frame 2 as the Reference Frame.

4.Hold the Alt key and move the robot by dragging it through the TCP or the robot flange to a safe position, free of collisions with any objects. Alternatively, move the coordinates of the Tool Frame (TCP) with respect to the reference Frame.

5.Use the Other configurations section to switch between different robot configurations and make sure that none of the robot axes are close to the axis limits.

Video: How to create robot targets: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylKTq03-b_A&list=PLjiA6TvRACQd8pL0EnE9Djc_SCH7wxxXl&index=5

Tip: In general, it is better if the first target of a program has the joint axes as centered as possible (the joint sliders are as centered as possible, as shown in the following image). This makes sure that the robot won’t reach the axis limits as it follows linear moves along the program. This is possible by changing the robot configuration.

6.Select Program➔ Teach Target (Ctrl+T), or the corresponding button in the toolbar (as shown in the image). The target will be placed as a dependency of the active reference frame and will automatically remember the current robot position (cartesian and joints axes).
In this example, the robot joint coordinates used for the first target are: [-150, -75, -90, -60, 70, 110] deg. You can copy these joint values from the text and paste them in the Joint axis jog of the robot panel using the corresponding button.

Note: Selecting another reference frame will place the new target in that reference frame instead.

Getting Started - Image 29

7.Rename the first target as Home by pressing F2. Alternatively, select Tools➔Rename item.

8.Move the robot closer to one edge of the part (by dragging the tool using the Alt key, entering coordinates or jogging the axis manually). In this example we used the following robot joint coordinates [0,0,200,180,0,180] deg.

9.Select Program➔ Teach Target (Ctrl+T) or the appropriate button in the toolbar to create a new target.

10. Rename the target to Approach as shown in step 7.

11. Select the Home target and the Approach target alternatively to see the robot moving between the two targets.

12. Right click the target and select Teach Current Position (Alt+double click) if a different position needs to be recorded for one of the targets.

13. Right click the target and select Target Options… (F3) to open the target options window shown in the next image.

Getting Started - Image 32

If required, provide different values to define the targets.

Create Targets